Once you have finished treatment for a spinal cord injury, your lawyer will investigate the circumstances of your accident and begin to gather all of your medical treatment records and bills. He or she will also obtain copies of any physical therapy or occupational therapy records, and review all of them. Your lawyer will then assemble all of these records and bills, so the packet can be forwarded to the insurance company of the at-fault individual. This collection of documents is called a demand packet.
Along with the demand package, your lawyer will typically include correspondence that makes a demand for settlement. Given that many spinal cord injuries are extremely serious and have various (and potentially lifelong) impacts, including the possible need for lifetime care, many lawyers will demand the policy limits of insurance coverage in these types of accident cases.
Once the adjuster reviews the demand package, he or she may come back with an offer to settle the case. If you and your lawyer believe that the settlement offer does not constitute full and reasonable compensation for the accident and your spinal cord injury, then your lawyer may continue to negotiate with the insurance company’s adjuster. It may take several rounds of negotiation before the parties reach a settlement.
If the parties still cannot decide on a favorable settlement number, then the case will move into litigation. The litigation process begins when the accident victim’s lawyer files a complaint against the at-fault individual in the state court system. Once your lawyer files the lawsuit, your case will enter the discovery phase of litigation. During this time, the accident victim will answer questions from the defendant’s attorney, regarding how the accident occurred, the injuries he or she suffered, and any resultant permanent disabilities.
Moreover, the defense attorney will most likely take the accident victim’s deposition. A deposition is an out-of-court proceeding in which defense counsel asks the accident victim for his or her account of the circumstances surrounding the accident, how he or she sustained injuries, the specific injuries that resulted, and whether or not any of the injuries are permanent, At the Brauns Law Accident Injury Lawyers, PC, our experienced spinal cord injury lawyers will fully prepare you to testify at your deposition.
After a deposition occurs, the insurance company will sometimes reevaluate the case, possibly putting a higher settlement offer on it. If the case does not settle after a deposition, the parties will typically attend a settlement conference or mediation. At this time, a judge or mediator will listen to each side’s version of the dispute and attempt to facilitate a favorable settlement in the case. Oftentimes during a settlement conference or mediation, the judge or mediator will break out with each party individually.
If the case does not settle at a settlement conference or mediation, the accident victim still has the opportunity to take the case to trial. If the case goes to trial, a jury will typically decide what, if any, damages the accident victim is entitled to recover. The jury is supposed to base its decision on all of the evidence that the parties present at the trial. However, this does not always happen, and there can be serious risks associated with taking a case to trial. The legal team at the Brauns Law Accident Injury Lawyers, PC can help you decide on the best course of action for your particular case.
