People tend to imagine personal injury lawsuits being fought in aggressive, adversarial courtrooms, but in reality, most personal injury lawsuits settle out of court quite straightforwardly. Why is this the case? And what does this process look like?
The Basics of Personal Injury Cases
After a person has been injured, they’ll have the opportunity to seek compensation in a legal setting. The process goes something like this in most states:
- An initial consultation. The first step of the process is to find a reliable personal injury lawyer. Together, you and your lawyer will review the available information and determine whether making a personal injury claim makes sense. If it does, you’ll devise a strategy collaboratively, and you’ll begin to move forward with the process. Your lawyer will help you with the fine details of that process and guide you on what to do next.
- Initial demands. Typically, the next step is to make demands. This usually means requesting a certain level of compensation from the person or entity responsible for your injuries.
- Negotiations. After demands have been made, the defending party will have an opportunity to respond. At this point, negotiations typically begin, and both parties attempt to find a settlement solution that’s mutually agreeable. Many personal injury lawsuits end here.
- Lawsuit filing. If negotiations fail, you may choose to file a lawsuit. However, you still won’t be going to trial at this point.
- Discovery. During discovery, lawyers exchange information with each other. It’s important to be open and transparent with all information, so this process is usually lengthy and quite thorough.
- Mediation. After discovery is over, both parties may enter mediation. In this setting, negotiations continue, sometimes with the aid of a third-party mediator. Both parties are incentivized to avoid a trial.
- Trial (the last resort). If the parties involved can’t reach an agreement, the case will eventually be tried in court. This is a last resort, forcing a judge and/or jury to make a decision regarding the case.
Why Settling Is Mutually Advantageous
Most personal injury lawsuits settle long before a court date because it’s in the best interests of both the defendant and the plaintiff. Some of the advantages include:
- Acceleration of the timeline. As you can see, negotiating successfully means you’ll get to avoid more than half the steps of the process. This greatly accelerates the timeline and resolves the issue much faster.
- Cost mitigation. Court fees have long been expensive, and when you add in attorney fees and other legal expenses, the costs quickly become prohibitive. Settling out of court means both parties get to save significant money.
- Fact recognition. There may be some facts in dispute, but in most cases, both parties generally agree on what happened. With recognition of the facts, it becomes much easier to reach a mutually agreeable settlement.
- Law recognition. Similarly, both legal teams will have a thorough understanding of the law, and they’ll know the approximate amount of the damages that would be awarded by a judge or jury. As long as the demands are reasonable, neither party has a clear reason to move to trial.
- Mutual desire for a fair outcome. While there are sometimes frivolous lawsuits, they tend to be rare. Most plaintiffs and defendants simply want the matter to be over with as soon as possible, with a fair outcome for both parties.
- The risks of a trial. Court cases can sometimes be unpredictable. Rather than take the risk, both parties are incentivized to retain control and resolve the matter independently.
Getting a Favorable Settlement
There are some steps you can take to get a more favorable settlement:
- Follow your lawyer’s advice. Your lawyer is a skilled, trained professional dedicated to helping you get the most favorable possible outcome. They’re going to educate you and give you advice throughout the process, so make sure you follow that advice as closely as possible.
- Document everything you can. Gather as much evidence and documentation as you can. You need to be able to prove your version of events and demonstrate the validity of the damages you’re demanding.
- Prepare to negotiate. Just because personal injury cases commonly settle out of court doesn’t mean they’re easy to navigate. In fact, many settlements are only finalized after months of negotiations. If you want to push for a settlement that covers all of your damages and expenses, you need to be patient during this phase of the process.
Personal injury cases have mostly settled out of court for many decades, and that trend is likely to continue well into the future. If you want to maximize your chances of negotiating a significant, fair payout, hire the best personal injury lawyer you can afford.
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