Virginia Personal Injury Law: How Personal Injury Cases Work

If you have been injured because someone else did something wrong, you are probably considering hiring a lawyer. One of the common things I see when talking to people looking for a personal injury lawyer is that they do not understand the basics of how a personal injury case works.

So what are the basic steps in a personal injury case, and what do you need to know before talking to a lawyer?

Understanding The Significance of Your Medical Bills

The first thing any personal injury lawyer needs to know is how much a case is worth. There are several reasons why a personal injury lawyer needs to know that. A personal injury lawyer decides to take a case depending on how much a case is worth. Some personal injury lawyers take cases contingency, which means that you don't pay anything unless they win. Some cases are not worth enough to be contingency.

Your medical bills are a good place to start in understanding the basic value of your case. A case is not only about medical bills, but it certainly informs the personal injury lawyer what they can expect from settlement or trial.

If you want to increase your chances of finding a personal injury lawyer for your case, it's important to have your medical bill information available prior to sitting down with the lawyer. You can obtain medical bills from your service provider by talking to their administrative staff.

Without substantial medical bills, it is likely that you will have to hire a lawyer on a non-contingent basis. There may be other damages, but it likely will not be worth enough money for the lawyer to pay upfront on your behalf.

What Personal Injury Lawyers Look For During A Consultation

The second step in the process is to bring your bills to a personal injury lawyer to discuss the case in more detail. most personal injury lawyers will not charge for them initial consultation so long as the case is worthwhile. If the case is not high value or if it is particularly complex, you may have to pay a consultation fee.

The purpose of a consultation is to discuss the facts of what happened, to go over who would be sued and how much the cases worth, and to tell you how long the case may take.

The Personal Injury Settlement Process

Once you and your lawyer have come to an agreement on cost, your lawyer will likely submit a claim to the insurance company requesting payment. There is a lot of work that goes into this claim statement. Lawyers with typically put your medical bills in the claims statement, they will put a statement of fact in the claim statement, they will put a demand for payment, and there may be additional information they put in there.

Once the insurance adjuster receives the claim statement, they will be a series of negotiations where the insurance adjuster will probably offer a specific amount of money to settle the case. These negotiations go back and forth until the client accepts the settlement or rejects it and it goes to trial.

Going to Trial in Personal Injury Cases

If settlement negotiations are successful, then the parties will execute a settlement agreement. The agreement will go through details of how the settlement will be paid and when it will be paid. If settlement is not successful, then the case will go to trial. At that point, there will likely be expert witnesses hired. These expert witnesses will talk about the value of the case and the nature of the damage. At the end of the trial, the finder a fact will determine whether or not you are entitled to money and by how much.

Why You Need a Personal Injury Lawyer

Navigating a person injury claim is very complicated and time-consuming. You can also hurt your case by submitting bad information to the insurance adjuster. A good personal injury lawyer understands what information the insurance adjuster needs to make a fair decision. If you cannot come to a settlement, a good lawyer is needed to navigate trial because there are many pit falls. Talk to a lawyer if you are injured because of someone else's wrong doing.