1-800-920-8165
If, after having filed, a personal injury claim, you elected to retain a lawyer, then you could be asked to file a personal injury lawsuit.
What you should be discussing with the consulted lawyer
• What was it that caused the accident? The answer to that question could indicate who might be charged as the person at fault.
• What medical bills you have received, at that point in time?
• In what ways have the accident-related injuries placed a limit on your activities?
Your lawyer’s first step: performing specific tasks
• Interview witnesses
• Check for existence of video footage, taken at accident site during time of accident’s occurrence
• Contact any needed expert witnesses
Your Personal Injury Lawyer in Sudbury should work with you on the next step. That would involve the writing of a demand letter. That should let the other party know what you are demanding, in terms of compensation. If more than one party being held responsible, send letter to each of the parties.
The lawyer’s next step must await the proper action from the contacted party.
The other side, usually an insurance company must make an initial offer.You and the attorney decide on your response to that offer. The response could be a counteroffer, which would launch negotiations.
During negotiations, your team (you and the lawyer) could find some offer from the insurance company to be acceptable. If that were the case, then the claim process would stop, and you could be expecting a compensation package.
Steps taken if no agreement during negotiations
It is possible that you might be able to take part in negotiations with the other side. That could lead to a mediated agreement. In the absence of such an agreement, your attorney would need to prepare for a discovery session, during which there would be an exchange of evidence.
If case were to remain unresolved after discovery, it would become your attorney’s job to present your claim to a judge, during a trial. If you had suffered severe injuries, the presentation at trial would be made to a jury. The jury would share its verdict with the judge.
After both sides have heard the verdict, each party has the right to seek an appeal hearing. If that is granted, then the case gets tried again, in an appeals court. Both parties have the right to appeal any decision from an appeals court.
Understand that these last steps would be unnecessary, if a settlement had been reached at any point, prior to announcement of the verdict. In other words, a settlement could take place at any time, either before or after the launching of a lawsuit. Each of the steps reflects the nature of the actions that were taken earlier.