There are two ways to deal with things after getting in a car accident and getting injured. You can either settle the case and agree on an amount with the insurance adjuster of the at-fault driver – or – you can take things to trial and let the judge decide the final verdict.
Most personal injury cases end with a settlement. Read on to learn more about the behind-the-scenes of personal injury cases.
What Happens If You Get Injured In A Car Accident?
If you get in a car accident and you get your medical care, you can get in touch with a car accident lawyer to get help with compensation. If you have minor injuries, the car accident lawyer will collect your medical records and send a settlement package with the medical records along with the settlement opportunity letter to the insurance company.
In such a scenario, the personal injury case can be settled right there and then. It can be settled as quickly as four months from the date of your accident. Now, if the case doesn’t settle, the lawyer will file a lawsuit, and there are several things that happen in a lawsuit, which is also why most personal injury cases settle.
What Happens in A Personal Injury Lawsuit?
What happens in a lawsuit is that with the help of your lawyer, you file a complaint where you allege certain things, such as your injury and the negligence of the at-fault driver. Subsequently, the defendant appears in the lawsuit.
Typically, the defendant asks for discovery, where they ask for your medical records. Now, they have all of your medical records, and if they think that you are lying, they will ask for additional medical records.
How Does the Defense Lawyer Assess the Case?
Most defense layers do a very granular deep dive where they look at the insurance printouts, medical printouts, and prescriptions of every doctor that you have ever seen. They will ask for everything now.
Of course, you don’t have to give them everything as you have the right to reject certain things – but you have to give them everything that is related to your injury. For instance, if you are claiming a spinal fusion from the accident and you have prior back treatment – even if it is a chiropractor – you have to give the defendant’s lawyer the details.
The Defense Questions the Plaintiff
Apart from the discovery of important medical documents or all of your medical history, the defendant’s lawyer, during the lawsuit, gets to depose you. In simpler words, they will be asking you questions as they know what kind of witness you are and what you will be like on the stand if things go to trial.
Everyone Has Exposure to the Case’s Worth
Once all of that is done, your case will be placed on the trial calendar. When this happens, everyone knows everything. You, the plaintiff, will know how much insurance there is and which court will try the case. You also know what the potential exposure is and how much you can possibly get if you win the case.
You also know all of your injuries. Your lawyer should also know how this personal injury and the case have affected your life. Subsequently, your lawyer can estimate what the case can be worth. Suppose it is a hundred thousand dollar policy and you have sustained a serious injury, such as a fracture – you know that your case is worth the hundred thousand dollars.
So, you might have second thoughts about what the point is of going to the court and paying your doctor money to testify, and if you get a million-dollar verdict, then you might wonder about who would be paying it as the insurance company could be in bad faith and the insurance company will have their own thoughts going on.
The Number One Reason Why Most Cases Settle
The point is that since you will have litigation going on – both sides will be closer to knowing what the case is likely to be worth. This aspect perfectly explains why most personal injury cases prefer to settle. The other tool that both sides can use is precedence, which means that both sides can go back and look at the history of other cases with the same injury – perhaps even with the same judge or the same courthouse.
Examples of Why Personal Injury Cases Might Go To Trial
There can be specific reasons for a personal injury case to go to trial, such as the following:
Loads of Insurance
Now, when a personal injury case does go to a trial, there is a lot of potential insurance. Suppose you got into a car accident and you got injured. The at-fault driver has a hundred million in insurance, in which case, you would definitely want to take the case to trial instead of opting for settlement.
Life-Changing Injuries
Also, if someone has a life-changing injury, such as a brain injury, they might take the case to trial as well. The lawyer might assess the case and say that the case is worth at least five million dollars, whereas the defendant would say that they cannot pay such a high amount. In this case scenario, the lawyer would recommend taking the case to the court so that a judge can allow for what the case is really worth.
Liability Issues
If the insurance company doesn’t believe you, the case might go to trial as well. The insurance adjusters might think that you are a fraudster who is faking things and you have sustained your injuries due to something else and not the car crash.
In case of a liability issue, the insurance company might decide to get a defense attorney because they don’t want to pay you any money as they believe that you are at fault. Of course, in such a case scenario, opting for a lawsuit and taking the personal injury case to trial is inevitable.
Final Thoughts
A lot of the times when personal injury cases go to trial are the ones where there is a lot of insurance involved, and there is a fight about liability or how much something is worth the damages. In such instances, you need the jury to examine everything and put a just value on it. Otherwise, most personal injury cases are settled outside the court. So, if you have been in an accident and sustained injury or damage to your car, get a lawyer on board to settle the case and get rightfully compensated.