How To Properly Handle A Personal Injury Case: A Step-by-step Guide

Waqar Ahmad October 20, 2021

0 19 5 minutes read

Have you ever suffered a life-altering injury on someone else’s hands? How do you deal with that? To handle a personal injury may require you to proceed through each step with meticulous attention. Personal Injury cases might be accidents, slips, medical negligence, and product defects along with other types, but one thing materialized is its potential to cause profound mental, physical, and financial consequences.

If you ever suffer through a personal injury, you will have to carefully pass through the intricacies to get your rightful compensation. Having a reputable attorney by your side makes the procedure breezy from start to end.

In this guide, we will delve into the steps to handle a personal injury case from finding an attorney to the settlement.

Table of Contents

How To Handle A Personal Injury Case From Beginning Till End?

How to handle a personal injury case when it’s already critical? It requires meticulous attention towards every matter whether it’s filling up paperwork or doing some important actions. You have to be very punctual about the deadlines.

The most peculiar deadline is the statute of limitations where you have to file your personal injury claim which is usually known to be 3 years from the time of injury or the time when you discovered it.

Is 3 years too long? It might seem to be stretched a lot but if we consider recovery time, claim preparation, and legal paperwork filing, the deadline will be over in a blink.

Keeping track of these timelines isn’t possible for a layman, therefore consulting with a personal injury lawyer seems a good choice.

By considering all these factors, here’s a guide that will dictate you what to do from the beginning till the end.

Step#1: Discuss With An Attorney

How to handle a personal injury case on your own? Well first things first, it’s not possible to tackle it yourself, you need to consult with an attorney. Consult with a reputable one who is already experienced in handling such cases. Tell your case in detail, and the attorney will analyze the situation and dictate your action and how you need to proceed further.

Step#2: Make a Petition of Your Personal Injury Case

Have you decided you will proceed with the case? Good, now the first step while handling the case is to gather all the essential documents your attorney asks you to, which are filed into the court for proceedings.

This essential document is generally known as either a complaint or a petition. The complaint comprises the accident details, how the other party’s negligence affected you, and the amount of compensation you want.

When you officially submit the complaint, now you are required to notify the at-fault party about the legal action you have taken against them.

Step#3: Pre-trial Discovery Phase

How to handle a personal injury case once you inform your defendant about the petition against them? As a response from them, the pre-trial discovery phase will initiate.

In this step, the attorney and the defendant’s attorney will request witness statements and evidence from one another about which the arguments began.

This procedure is time-consuming as all the evidence is keenly analyzed. While evaluating, if new evidence comes up, both parties are authorized to examine this evidence. Once this discovery phase terminates, if your evidence seems weak the defendant has the authority to dismiss your case. But mind it, if you have a good attorney there are fewer chances that the defendant will be able to terminate your claim.

Step#4: Begin Settlement Negotiations

How to handle a personal injury case when your defendant is ready to cooperate with you? Once seeing the defendant and their legal representative’s willingness, you initiate a monetary settlement.

If your case is strong enough, you seek a good settlement offer from the defendant, and they are obliged to comply.

During this step, both parties, you and the defendant along with the legal representative negotiate and debate which settlement offer is fair enough to be settled on. These negotiations happen outside the courtroom. If both parties agree on the settlement terms, the personal injury claim is completed.

Step#5: Continue With Trials

How to handle a personal injury case if there’s no mutual agreement over settlement terms? The petitioner and the defendant bring forth their arguments and evidence to a judge and jury.

It’s difficult to presume the exact time frame this procedure may take. It may take a day for the judge to decide or it may take weeks for a final decision which usually comprises more than one trial.

In the end, the judge or the jury decides the liability of the defendant and determines how much the monetary settlement of other compensation the defendant owes you.

Step#6: Final Settlement

If the judge decides the settlement in your favor, then you will get your compensation amount in due time, however, your attorney’s expenses and charges will be deducted.

These are the detailed steps you can take if you are wondering how to handle a personal injury case. However, the procedure doesn’t need to be exact, there could be some variables that impact your claim. We know that every person suffers through a different personal injury case, and the situation will be certainly unique.

You just need to have a skilled personal injury lawyer by your side, who will help you deal with legal matters, negotiate on your behalf, and make sure you get your rights with appropriate compensation.

Bottom-line

In conclusion, to handle a personal injury case the timeframe might not be of much importance but the steps you take and the outcome make a huge difference. To begin with the procedure timeline, you need to have a legal attorney by your side, as an expert personal injury attorney will decipher your claims and the details you provide and proceed with further steps with meticulous detail.

While navigating through all the steps where he will negotiate the terms on your behalf with the defendant and help you to bring your argument in front of a jury.

Throughout all these steps, your attorney will have only one goal, to provide you with compensation terms that are in your favor.

Give it a thorough read to get an understanding of all the legal proceedings you may need to face if you ever encounter a personal injury case.

FAQs on Handle A Personal Injury Case

When should a personal injury lawyer be used?

You must consult with a personal injury attorney immediately when the insurance provider claims that your actions contribute to the reasons for your injury.