Settling a personal injury lawsuit can be tedious and time-consuming. More so, it is a process that needs a lot of dedicated finances for paying a lawyer and settling any court charges. If you have suffered an injury you probably know all this. You need help to go through the whole process. Below are some of the key steps you need to follow to ensure that you sail through the legal process successfully.
Seek Medical Treatment
Your life is more important than the outcome of the lawsuit. It is therefore imperative to seek medical treatment as soon as the injury happens. Medical treatment can save your life and is also the proof of your injury to your insurer or evidence of injury in a court case. Naturally, your medical care plus your health are the key things that you should worry about after the injury, way before thinking about compensation or a lawsuit if need be.
Decide On Whether Or Not to Hire an Attorney
After recovery from the injury and your claim have not been addressed, you can opt to settle things in a lawsuit. Therefore, this needs you to make a swift but rational decision on whether to hire an attorney or represent yourself before the court. If you live in California, you can choose to get great representation from any injury lawyer in Los Angeles. Most notably, hiring a lawyer is a sign that you mean business and you are determined to get your claim settled.
Filing the Lawsuit and Commencement Of Pleads
After hiring the layer, investigation, and filing of all relevant information to be used as evidence in the court is done. Afterward, the lawsuit is filed and presentation of facts kicks off before the court and the jury. However, most people usually do not get to this step since the parties taken to court for inflicting the injury or not addressing the injury (for insurance companies) are already propelled to settle everything by the lawyer. However, this is the next step to settle the lawsuit if they fail to comply.
Discovery and Mediation
Before the trial for the personal injury case kicks off, a process called discovery must take place. This is where the all the parties in the case obtain evidence from one another. Typically, this process includes interviews, short questionnaires, depositions and requests for relevant documents. Depending on the length of the case, the discovery process can turn out to be dramatically lengthy. If all evidence add up and the defendant feels guilty, mediation comes in and at this time both parties can agree to withdraw the lawsuit.
The Trial
If the above is futile, the latter step is a personal injury trial which may take a day, a week or longer. In most states, personal injury trials take an average of between 3 to 10 days. Nonetheless, the length of the lawsuit may either decrease or increase depending on changes to court rules and docketing procedures.
Conclusion
With the steps above, we are sure that you are now educated about how to go about any personal lawsuit. Do not languish in silence when you can settle the case and get the necessary compensation.
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