What are the wechanics of personal injury lawsuits

We have considered the broad issues of what to do immediately after an accident, how to find a good injury lawyer if you have been injured and how to put a value on your claims. Now, we come to the chapter that deals with the details of actually filing a lawsuit and going to trial. This is a long chapter so, I will outline it briefly at the start. If you are unable to reach a settlement with an individual or insurance company, a lawsuit will have to be filed and your case will have to be tried.

I will begin this discussion with a look at statutes of limitations. This may be the most important topic in the entire book. You must must file a lawsuit within the time limits provided by the applicable statutes of limitations or you lose all of your rights to seek compensation for your injuries. You cannot file a lawsuit, cannot make an insurance claim nothing. Once that deadline passes, you lose all those rights.

Then I will explore the litigation process, from the commencement of the lawsuit through trial as well as some related issues that will help you to better understand the process.

The first section regarding commencement of the lawsuit explores the drafting of a complaint, filing the complaint, serving it and answers served by the defendant. The subsequent section deals with discovery, wherein parties exchange information and documents pertinent to the issues of the case.

This includes written discovery tools, such as interrogatories, requests for production of documents and requests for admissions, as well as depositions, which involved asking questions orally of a party or witness and recording the answers using a court reporter. Following the discovery section, I will discuss mediation and offers of personal injury judgment, two tools designed to encourage the settlement of lawsuits prior to trial, are covered.

The next section covers trial itself, beginning with preliminary issues such as burden of proof, which is the level of proof required in order to win your case, preparing for trial, getting to know the courtroom and courtroom etiquette. The chapter ends by covering some additional related topics including an explanation of hearsay, which many people misunderstand, privileges, which prevent and/or allow people not to testify in some circumstances and issues regarding actual collection of money when you win your case.

Statutes of Limitations

What is a statute of limitations?

It is, quite simply, a limit on the amount of time that you have to file a lawsuit. If you do not file before the expiration of that timeframe, you lose the right to bring any claim or lawsuit, forever. Furthermore, there are no excuses and no exceptions. If the personal injury attorney’s car breaks down on the way to the courthouse and the case does not get filed, that is too bad. The case cannot then be filed.

Errors involving statutes of limitations are responsible for many injury lawyer malpractice cases in the United States.

When a injury lawyer forgets or waits until the last minute and something goes wrong and he or she does not get the case filed on time, he or she has almost certainly committed malpractice. Because of this, I always try to file cases at least a week before the deadline just to be safe.

Statutes of limitations vary from state to state and from one type of case to another. Common time limits for personal injury cases are two years or three years. In other words, although statutes of limitations range from less than two years to more than three years, two-year and three-year limitations periods are common among the states.

Again, I want to stress that these times vary, so you need to check to see what the limitations period is where your case will be filed. In this chapter, for purposes of explanation only, we will use a two-year time limit.

If the statute of limitations for personal injury lawsuits in your state is two years, you must file your lawsuit within two years of the date that the personal injury occurred. The time period is usually measured from the day that the personal injury occurred or in some jurisdictions the following day (unless the discovery rule or another exception applies).

So, if you are in a car accident on March 10, 2001 and there is a two year statute of limitations in your state, you have until March 10, 2003 (or possibly March 11, 2003, depending on the rules) to file a lawsuit or you lose the right to bring a lawsuit forever. If the last day of the time limits falls on a weekend or holiday in which the courts are closed, then the final day is usually the next day in which the courts are open. However, to be safe, make sure your state does not then make the limit the day before the holiday or weekend.

While statutes of limitation do not directly control insurance claims, they do indirectly control claims. An insurance claim against a tortfeasor is directly linked to your ability to sue that party. Thus, if the statute of limitations deadline passes, you cannot file a lawsuit and consequently you also cannot bring an insurance claim or any other claim for your injuries.

Your right to compensation for your injuries expires when the statute of limitations period runs out.