Getting What Is Rightfully Yours

Getting Started With A Personal Injury Lawsuit

31 December 2015 by Penny Fisher

If you were injured and think that you might have a strong personal injury lawsuit on your hands, then you probably have your hands full. To get a better idea of what you will need to do in the near future and when you will need to do it, here is a brief overview of the road ahead:

Filing and the Statute of Limitations

One of the first things that you need to do is actually file your lawsuit. The window in which you can file is known as the statute of limitations. This can depend heavily on the state you are in, so you will want to consult your local laws as soon as possible. Once you have a good idea of how much time you have, you should gather your evidence. While part of the personal injury lawsuit process will be dedicated to "discovery" and finding evidence by both sides, you want to be as prepared as possible before you start.

Filing your lawsuit quickly does have some advantages. You will have a clearer memory of the events and will be less likely to have lost any evidence. For this reason, you want to make sure that your evidence for the case is extremely secure.

How the Lawsuit Will End

In many cases, your lawsuit won't actually end with court-ordered compensation. In other words, you won't be given the amount of money that you are pursuing in compensation. The much more likely result is that your case will be settled out of court. What this means is that the accused party will give you some sum of money in order to drop the case completely. You will get the settlement money, but will be unable to pursue your lawsuit in court.

On one hand, settlements are often much more reliable than continuing the court case. You are guaranteed some money in a settlement, but you could actually lose your case if you continued in court. Even if you win in court, the judge might reduce your amount of compensation.

Settlements will also make your life a lot less stressful. You won't be required to show up in court anymore and won't have to worry about whether or not your medical/auto bills will be covered. Although the settlement may be less than you want, even if a personal injury attorney assists you, do you really want to spend more time in court? How much is your privacy and peace of mind worth to you?

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