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Don't Want to Deal With Personal Injury Lawsuit Stress While Healing? 2 Lawsuit Facts That Will Ease Your Mind

7 February 2017

Celina Henry

If you were injured and know it was the fault of another person's negligence or the negligence of a company, then you likely know that you deserve compensation from the person or company to cover the cost of your medical bills, missed time from work, and other expenses that can greatly accumulate when injured. However, like many people recovering from a serious injury, you may just want to relax while you heal and not deal with filing a lawsuit against the guilty party, because you believe it will be very stressful or time-consuming. 

However, the last thing you want to do is wait until you recover fully and then hire a personal injury attorney to fight for you, because you may then find out that there was evidence you forgot to collect that could have helped you win your case or, even worse, the statute of limitations in your state, which can be as little as one year, for filing a personal injury claim has passed. What should you do? Read on to learn two personal injury lawsuit facts that can help ease your worries that pursuing your case will be stressful.

1. There Are Eight Steps in a Personal Injury Lawsuit 

Just knowing how the personal injury lawsuit process works can greatly ease your mind that you will be entering a very stressful situation. There are eight possible steps in a personal injury lawsuit, but after you hire a  lawyer, they can represent you during much of the process while you just remain available to answer their questions. 

The first step is consulting with an attorney, and this step typically begins with a phone call. You will then likely have to meet with them in-person at least once to sign a legal agreement that allows them to represent you in court and hand over copies of all evidence you have that backs up your claim. However, many attorneys will come to your home to meet you, especially if your injuries prevent you from driving safely. 

Next, your attorney will file several legal documents for you called "pleadings." These papers include an official "claim" of your injuries to the court that gets "the ball rolling" on your case. The court will then notify the defendant who injured you of the claim, and if the defendant has any questions about the claim, they will be instructed to contact your lawyer. 

Additional stages include fact finding and discovery, motions, settlement, a trial, a final judgement, and a possible appeal. However, not all steps occur in all personal injury lawsuits. 

2. Ninety-Five Percent of All Personal Injury Lawsuits End in Settlement

Now that you know what all of the possible steps in a personal injury lawsuit are, you may still feel like the trial will be a very stressful endeavor. You may have seen many trials take place on television programs and dread the moment you will have to "take the stand" and answer the defense lawyer's questions as they attempt to make you out to be a "bad guy" or even accuse you of lying about your injuries or how they occurred. First, realize that trials that take place on scripted television shows are written to be entertaining, and real trials differ greatly. 

However, it will greatly ease your mind to know that 95-percent of all personal injury cases never even make it to trial. Typically, they end at the "settlement" step, and this typically means that the defendant (the person or company whose negligence led to injury) decides to compensate the plaintiff (you) for their injuries before the case ever makes it to trial.

Why do so many personal injury case defendants settle out of of court? They don't want to deal with the stress of a court trial any more than you do, along with the costs associated with going to trial. In addition, if they are a large company with a reputation to protect, they would rather compensate you for your injuries "behind closed doors" than deal with a trial that may make news headlines and damage their company reputation. 

If you were injured due to another person or company's negligence, but you feel like hiring a personal injury attorney and pursuing a lawsuit will be too stressful for you to endure right now, then keep these two facts in mind. Give a personal injury lawyer a call for more information, and if you would prefer to settle out-of-court than go to trial, then let your attorney know, so they can help you win you obtain compensation with an out-of-court settlement. 

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