What To Know Before Filing A Personal Injury Lawsuit?
Whether as a result of an accident or inflicted knowingly, personal injuries are a great inconvenience to your normal way of life. Filing a personal injury lawsuit is, in a way, making a statement that you want whoever brought about the disruption to your life to own up as well as pay up.
Is It a Good Idea To Settle Out of Court?
It is quite common for you to doubt whether filing that personal injury lawsuit is worth your while or if it will even pay up in the end. Depending on your suit’s complexities, it may or may not be a good idea to proceed to court with your case.
According to the D.O.J, more than ninety percent of personal injury lawsuits are settled out of court. If this statistic is anything to go by, resolving the case before making it into court is not such a bad idea. We recommend that you consider the court option if there is little or no cooperation from the accused.
What Is the Success Rate of Personal Injury Lawsuits?
Before you fix your sights on proceeding to court with the suit, we advise you first to seek legal counsel to have the details of your case analyzed. This can help you know what to expect of the courts if you push through with the case.
Your lawsuit’s success or lack of it is highly dependent on the trial strategy your lawyer employs. The statistics are unclear about the success rates, but most favorable outcomes are achieved from out-of-court settlements.
How Can You Prove the Legitimacy of Your Injury?
When you file a personal injury lawsuit, several documents can be used to justify the claims in your lawsuit. Even in cases where there is physical evidence of the injury, like scabs and wounds, hospital records may come in handy to amplify your claims.
Documents that are used in personal injury lawsuits include:
Psychiatric reports, especially in cases where there is a claim of emotional trauma or pain.
Specialist reports are signed testimonies by an accredited specialist in the medical field, saying they acknowledge that pain was inflicted on you and it would have future effects on you.
Pictures of the injuries to make the best claim, the pictures need to have been captured not long after the injuries were inflicted. Another use case for pictures is when the injuries have already begun healing, or they are in body parts that cannot be freely showcased.
Hospital bills work directly in supporting the amount of money that you are suing for. When presenting medical bills, we recommend that you include estimated costs of future medical expenses that may arise due to the injury.
Medical records can span from records of changes in your blood pressure to records of changes in your responses to medication due to the injuries inflicted on you. These come especially in handy in cases where you’d be incurring future treatment costs.
Can emotional pain or trauma be covered in the lawsuit?
Unlike physical injuries, emotional pain can be rather hard to even document, let alone be used as a basis for a lawsuit. While it is possible to sue for emotional pain, the process can be quite complicated and delicate, demanding extra dedication.
For a chance at having your emotional trauma lawsuit hold some weight in court, we recommend you have detailed documentation of your experiences. The court may involve experts like psychologists to assess your condition, and having good documentation of your condition may come in handy.
How Long Does It Take Till the Lawsuit Is Settled?
Personal injury cases are known to be quite time-consuming, and depending on the complexities of the case, you may spend even up to years just going through the works. Having your case spend more time in the courts should be a price you’re willing to pay if you hope to make the most out of it.
Whenever an insurance company is involved in a lawsuit, that may be a factor in determining how long the case lasts. Some insurance companies use it as a tactic to drag the process as long as they can, hoping that you’d grow weary and agree on a lesser settlement.