Legal Terms | Major Injury Law Blog

How to Recover Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Legal Terms Comments Off

Sep 012021

Courtroom

A personal injury lawsuit includes several aspects. Therefore, one should follow the right procedures and practices to receive a financial claim after an accident or incident. The best recommendation from experts is to hire a personal injury lawyer that can handle your case and represent you in front of the court.

No one gets injured by choice; we often get involved in such situations that lead to painful injuries, loss of vehicle, and a bunch of medical bills that you cannot afford. In such circumstances, it is necessary to receive a monetary payment that can assist you with regaining the normal flow of life. Experienced personal injury lawyers can help you throughout the process to recover the damages under a personal injury lawsuit.

What do you need to know about a personal injury lawyer?

In order to understand the procedure to receive compensation after an accident, it is first important to understand a personal injury lawyer. These professionals are licensed to file a lawsuit to represent the injured victims in court. With their knowledge and experience in the field, they prepare the case and stand by the victim throughout the case.

There are variety of tasks that a personal injury lawyer needs to handle while following a trustworthy legal strategy. They file court documents, pursue evidence and speak in the court to present facts on behalf of the victim. These trained representatives can claim compensation in a reliable manner and take relevant actions after a personal injury accident.

Steps to recover from damages in personal injury lawsuit:

There are so many types of personal injury cases such as auto accidents, wrongful death, workplace accident, slip & fall accident, medical malpractice, exposure to toxic substances, intentional torts, and product liability. Depending upon the personal injury case, the victims can receive various kinds of compensations that mainly focus on emotional distress, loss of consortium, property loss, loss of wages, loss of earning ability, and medical treatment.

There are few necessary steps that one need to follow to recover from the personal injury damages:

First of all, it is important to consult with an experienced personal injury lawyer and discuss your case. Make sure you tell every single detail about the accident to the lawyer so that the expert can guide you accordingly. They may explain to you the law, case process and also provide details about the value of the case.
It is necessary to file the case in court within a specified time duration; then, only you will be able to receive the claim legally. Moreover, the legal papers must meet the lawsuit requirements in terms of content as well as formatting. This process needs some time; therefore, it is better to approach a personal injury lawyer on time.
In most cases, the personal injury lawsuit shows its winning or losing potential during pretrial case preparations. The experienced attorney may take some legal steps accordingly and file pretrial motions to build solid evidence in favor of your case.
The personal injury lawyers also check the settlement options before the trial, and if required, they prefer post-trial motions to help victims receive the proper claim.

Once you follow these simple steps to deal with personal injury cases, you can assure considerable support from the lawsuit to cover the damages.

Citation

https://www.lawyer-monthly.com/2021/08/what-are-the-steps-to-recover-damages-in-a-personal-injury-lawsuit/

What Is Pre-Settlement Funding?

Legal Terms Comments Off

Aug 012021

Lawsuit Pre-Settlement Funding

The consumer pre-settlement loan provides access to the recovery amount in the lawsuit before the ultimate closure of the case. This loan is known by many different names, such as lawsuit loan, litigation funding, pre-settlement funding or car accident loan as well.

Usually, the court trials or case settlements take longer time, even months and years in case of some complicated accident cases. And in most cases, the settlement amount is usually very high. In such situations, the pre-settlement funding company provides some portion of the expected pay-out in advance to the claimant. However, the claimant also needs to assign some portion of this recovery amount to the respective funding company which will be issued when the case is finally resolved.

Who can apply for a pre-settlement advance?

The funding agreement is not only influenced by the creditworthiness of the claimant. Rather, the funding agreements mainly focus on the strength of the case on behalf of the claimant. For the litigation funding agency, this transaction works more like an investment. Same as all investors, the agency needs to ensure that they are making a reasonable investment that could ultimately bring some profits. In order to investigate the case, the company hires a team of experts that could review the details and prepare estimates for the claimant.

While going through the case for estimating pre-settlement loan amount, the underwriters check below listed important factors:

Active status of litigation

The first thing that the litigation funding firm will need to check is that claimant has hired an attorney and they have an active case in the court. When the case is already filed, the agencies find it easier to rely on the investigation and assessment. Cases that are active in the court make these funders believe that the details are in the hand of some professional staff members, and the outcomes may be in favor of the claimant.

Type of case

All cases do not qualify for litigation loans. The most commonly accepted cases include personal injury or in which the claimant can expect some cash settlement from court. The list of such cases usually includes the destruction of property, slip and fall incidents, car accidents, and negligence. Very few litigation funding agencies provide loans for other cases like employment law cases, unsafe medical devices, and whistle-blower.

Settlement potential

This is another important aspect that underwriters need to investigate. After all, the settlement amount will decide how much profit the company can make out of this investment. Therefore, they are likely to check case files and estimate the settlement amount along with the case timeline. They just need to ensure that the respective case settlement will cover the fees of attorneys, travel, court reporters, and the cost of a lawsuit. The professionals offer pre-settlement amounts only after judging the potential of the respective case.

Experienced litigation funding providers know the best ways to deal with settlement-related cases. They can help claimants to manage ongoing expenses before the case is resolved in court. In this way, they make profits for their investments and yet the claimant receives funding to cover necessary expenses originated after the accident.

Citation

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/pre-settlement-lawsuit-funding-how-does-it-work

What to Expect When You File a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Legal Terms Comments Off

Jul 032021

When it comes to filing a personal injury lawsuit, it is easy to get carried away. We all see major stories of people winning millions of dollars or catching the aggravating party red-handed in a court of law. However, the reality is that applying for a filing for personal injury lawsuits is a more challenging process than one might assume. To help you make sure you can go through the process as effectively as possible, here is a simple 5-step process to think about that might help your personal lawsuit.

Always seek treatment

Once you have gone through any kind of injury, accidental or otherwise, you should seek medical assessment ASAP. Having it on-record that you immediately sought out treatment is very important. Even if you don’t feel in pain, a medical professional might spot something internal that could be problematic and thus needs correction or treatment.

If nothing else, it helps to show to any insurance adjuster that you have gone through the correct steps after the incident happened.

Get in touch with legal aid

Your next step is to contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss what steps can be taken. No matter how small a claim, you should always want to get legal aid to support you. Unless you have legal expertise and know the ins and outs of the courtroom process, don’t try to avoid paying out for help – a lawyer can be the difference between winning your day in court or having the case dismissed.

Begin the process

A lawyer will study your complaint and then look through your health records. Here, they should have a clear idea of what to do next via an interview with you. They will also look to go through your medical records and your medical costs; this takes time, so be patient.

Also, they will go through the process of making a petition and then negotiating with the other party. In the case of smaller claims, this could lead to pre-court settlement.

Filing the complaint

At this stage, the claim might have to go to court – if that is the case, your lawyer should take this to the court and now litigation begins. The case will begin trial on a certain date that is given to you both. Please note that it can take as many as one to two years for a trail to begin in earnest. This typically comes down to the kind of laws in your state.

Negotiation and trial

At this stage, some form of negotiation will likely take place. This could mean trying to mediate and find consensus so that some kind of payment is made prior to having to go trial. If not, though, you will need to take your case to court; this could be over in an afternoon or go on for months. It depends on how clear cut the evidence and the likelihood of guilt is. In short, be prepared for a long journey!

Taking part in a personal injury lawsuit can be demanding on your time, your bank balance, and your mental and physical health. Make sure you can commit everything needed, and that you are sure of the validity of the case, before taking this any further with a personal injury lawyer. Most lawyers provide a no-risk, free evaluation of your case – speak with a legal representative, and make your decision from there.

Citation

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/269894891/planning-to-file-a-personal-injury-lawsuit-heres-what-to-expect

What Is The Purpose Of The Discovery Process In Personal Injury Cases?

Legal Terms Comments Off

Mar 132017

The American justice system is already overloaded to the point of exhaustion. One of the principles of the court system is that by the time a case goes to trial, there should be as few things left to surprise as possible. To hold a fair trial, both prosecution and defense are required to turn over the facts that they have concerning the case.

If both sides came to court without any idea of what the allegations were or what evidence each held, then the courtroom would be a place of utter chaos. That is why since 1940, there has been a requirement that any documents or relevant facts in a case be presented to the opposition before the trial.

To be able to defend or prosecute equitably and not take up more time than necessary, each side has to provide a “heads up” about what will come during the trial, so that both are better prepared to present the best case possible and to receive a swift resolution to any personal injury case.

The process of “discovery” is a way that each side sees the cards that the other side holds prior to entering the courtroom. There are three types of discovery that must be given before any case begins. They are document production, depositions and written discovery.

Document production

In discovery, if either the prosecution or defendant has any factual documents, they are required to share a copy of those documents with the opposing side. Things like contracts, medical documents and now even computer files are all parts of document production discovery. With the growing age of technology, this discovery type continues to grow, sometimes encompassing things like emails and deleted files that are rediscovered.

Depositions

Deposition discovery means that any sworn statements given, be shared with the opposing side. When a person is questioned and gives answers to an attorney, those statements are recorded and transcripts are then made. Depositions can vary in length from an hour of questioning to months. The reasons that attorneys record depositions are varied, but most commonly attorneys take depositions so that people are obligated to their record of events early on and are held accountable for their statements during trial, and to know that a person has found a workers lawyer you can trust. They are also taken to compare what the parties recollect to see if the stories match up. And sometimes attorneys take depositions so that they can have a “mock trial” for practice, so that when the client is up on the stand, the client knows what to expect.

When giving a deposition, the client is best off never making assumptions and only to state facts without intention. Saying things like “I don’t know” is preferable to making a guess. Once you have said something, whether you are guessing or not, it is considered a fact in the case and it can affect your time on the stand. If you don’t understand the question being asked or are unsure of why you are being questioned, it is always best to inquire and have the attorney clarify exactly what they are asking before you answer in any recorded statement that you make.

Written discovery

Written discoveries are interrogatories where a client writes down their recount of an event or answers a question in writing. They are a version of facts that can be used in the trial setting. Questions can be in the form of open-ended inquiries to a simple yes or no. They are strictly factual statements and are not open to interpretation.

An auto accident attorney will find that often written discovery involves a request that a defendant admit to something directly like “did you do it.” Written discovery carries certain irrefutable statements and can be one of the most powerful tools introduced during trial. If you are going to put anything in writing, it is imperative that you consider the consequences of your statements.

Discovery is a way that the justice system is able to speed up the time that it takes to conduct a trial. If both parties were going into the courtroom blind, it would be a mess of trying to find facts, counter them and figure out what is right and how to combat what is being presented.

Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Suits

Legal Terms Comments Off

Feb 092011

The term “statute of limitations” refers to a law dictating the amount of time a person has to file a lawsuit after an incident occurs. Essentially a statute of limitations prevents someone from suing another person for an event that took place long ago.

After the time period is up, the victim has basically given up his right to recover monetary compensation. For personal injury suits, that is, those alleging wrongdoing on the part of the defendant which caused personal harm to the plaintiff, the statute of limitations can range from one to six years, depending upon the state in which the incident occurred.

Stipulations

• Discovery of Harm- The “discovery of harm” provision mandates that the statute of limitations does not apply until after the person realizes, or “discovers” that he or she has been harmed. For example, if a person is in a car accident and does not begin having back pain until six months after the incident, the statute of limitations does not begin on the day of the injury, but on the day that the harm has been discovered—in this case, six months later. Granted, the victim will have to prove that the back pain was a result of the car accident, and not some other injury or medical reason.

• Minors- If the victim in a personal injury suit is a minor, the statute of limitations does not begin until the individual’s eighteenth birthday. This stipulation protects the legal rights of children who may not know the law, or how to seek legal help, until long after the incident has taken place.

• Type of Injury-The statute of limitations may fluctuate depending upon what type of injury was inflicted. For example, a defamation case may have a different statute of limitations than a medical malpractice case. The laws regarding different types of injuries and the length of time you have to pursue a case change from state to state and over time as well, so your best bet is to seek counsel.

• Extensions- The statute of limitation can be extended in any personal injury case if extenuating circumstances exist. For instance, if the victim is incapacitated in any way due to the injury and cannot make legal decisions on his own, then the statute of limitations will not go into effect until after the individual recovers enough to pursue a suit. Other reasons that a statute might be extended, or “tolled,” in a case include a defendant’s financial status (such as bankruptcy) and cases in which the victim is deemed mentally incompetent.

Since laws often change, sometimes overnight, you need to seek legal assistance from a lawyer who is knowledgeable about the statute of limitations in your state. He or she can advise you as to exactly what your rights are. Despite the need for legal counsel, the statute of limitations is really about common sense—if you’ve been hurt in an accident or during a medical procedure, and you believe it was someone else’s fault, act right away. Don’t wait until it’s too late to receive the compensation you deserve.