It’s tempting to think of personal injury cases as long, drawn-out court battles. But it’s much more common for personal injury cases to be settled out of court.
Why is this the case? And what can you do to expedite your personal injury settlement while also maximizing your compensation?
How Personal Injury Cases Work
Personal injury law varies by location, but in most areas, the process goes something like this:
- Initial review. The plaintiff, or the injured party, will generally start the process by meeting with a personal injury lawyer. They and their personal injury lawyer will review the details of the case, discuss possible outcomes, and generally put together a strategy for how to maximize compensation. This strategy will vary depending on the severity of the injuries, the evidence available, and other factors.
- Demands. At this point, the plaintiff and their personal injury lawyer will make demands of the defendant. The defendant will have an opportunity to respond and hire their own lawyer.
- Negotiations and settlement. At this point, parties can enter negotiations and hopefully reach a settlement. Many personal injury cases end here; for example, the defendant may acknowledge their responsibility and simply pay whatever the plaintiff demands. Alternatively, the parties can iteratively negotiate until both parties are satisfied.
- Lawsuit filing. If negotiations fail, the plaintiff can file a lawsuit. Even after this filing, there will be opportunities to reach a settlement before the case goes to trial.
- Discovery. After filing, both parties enter discovery. During this time, both parties will exchange information with each other and agree on the facts to enter the case. This can be a long process, depending on the nature of the case.
- Mediation. Before the trial, parties can reenter negotiations or intermediation to reach an agreeable outcome and avoid trial. Because there are so many opportunities to reach a mutually agreeable settlement, trials become rare.
- The trial. In the unlikely event that parties still cannot reach an agreement, a trial becomes both necessary and inevitable.
Reasons for Settling
Both the plaintiff and the defendant are incentivized to settle before trial.
There are many reasons for this:
- Time savings. Even the fastest personal injury cases can take weeks or months to resolve. If the case is forced to go to trial, it could last many months or even years. Negotiating for a settlement means saving a lot of time and a lot of stress.
- Cost savings. Trials are also very expensive, often adding thousands of dollars to the bottom line costs. Depending on the findings, the plaintiff or defendant may be responsible for trial costs, and both parties will be responsible for compensating their lawyers for the time they spent on the case. Negotiating and settling greatly reduces the costs on both sides.
- Recognition of the facts. While sometimes, individual facts can be disputed, there’s generally a mutual understanding of what happened and how it happened. Given this spread of information, both parties should have a reasonable idea of the costs and who is responsible for them.
- Recognition of the law. Similarly, many personal injury cases have been resolved in courts, so both plaintiff and defendant attorneys should have a loose idea of how much would be awarded in a court setting. Given this information, it makes sense to negotiate a fair amount without resorting to a trial.
- Mutual good faith. We’ve all seen examples of frivolous and silly lawsuits. They do happen. But they’re considerably more rare than popular culture and the media would have you believe. In most personal injury cases, both parties engage in good faith, looking for a fair and equitable outcome.
- Perceived risks. Negotiation gives you direct control over the outcome. When you go to trial, you’ll be trusting a judge or a jury. Trusting the outcome to other parties increases the risk that you will not get the outcome you desire.
How to Maximize Your Outcomes
If you’re interested in maximizing your personal outcome in a personal injury case:
- Hire a good lawyer. The most important thing you can do is hire the best lawyer you can afford. Lawyers are experts in their respective disciplines who will do whatever is necessary to get you a desirable outcome.
- Document everything. You can maximize your chances of success by documenting as much as possible, including things like medical expenses and property damage.
- Gather as much evidence as possible. You should also go out of your way to gather as much evidence as possible, potentially including things like surveillance camera footage and witness statements. Your lawyer can help you with this process.
Personal injury cases can be complicated, expensive, and time-consuming. However, with the help of a good lawyer, you should be able to reach a mutually agreeable settlement long before you would step foot in a courtroom.
