Questions About Your Personal Injury Cases
Below are the answers to a few frequently asked questions that we often get about personal injury cases. For information about your specific situation, please do not hesitate to contact our office directly.
How Long Will My Personal Injury Case Take?
It is difficult to know how long your case will take once it is filed. You may be able to settle your case relatively quickly because personal injury jury trials are rare. However, this depends in part on how reasonable the insurance company or the responsible party are being in settlement negotiations. If your case needs to go all the way to trial, it could take years to resolve.
Sometimes, you have control over the timetable for your case. However, many cases that have quick resolutions mean that the accident victim leaves money on the table when they settle their case. Your personal injury attorney could help you negotiate a better settlement offer, but that could take time.
How Should I Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer?
You are placing quite a bit of trust in the person that you ultimately select as your attorney. Their legal advice could make a six-figure difference in the amount of money that you could receive, and it may even make the difference in whether you receive money at all. Therefore, you should feel comfortable with your attorney’s experience and judgment most of all.
Beyond that, you should have a comfort level with your attorney personally. Depending on your case, you may be working very closely with the lawyer over a number of years. It should be someone with whom you could develop a good working relationship because that will benefit your case.
Why Do I Need a Personal Injury Lawyer?
Of course, you are always free to file a lawsuit or a claim pro se, but you will not get special treatment because you are on your own. In fact, the insurance company may think that you are a weak mark because you do not have the legal knowledge that a lawyer would provide. Besides, it is very difficult for the average person who does not know what the insurance company is looking for to file a persuasive claim that could maximize their settlement. They may not even know how to present a story that allows the adjusters to conclude that someone else was responsible for the accident.
How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
In California, the statute of limitations in a personal injury lawsuit is two years from the time that you were injured or should have known that you were injured. This means that you should move quickly to begin your legal action. Two years may seem like a long time, but claims take time to resolve, and lawsuit complaints take time to investigate and draft. Besides, the quicker you get started on the legal process, the sooner you may be able to settle your case and have the money that you need to pay your living and medical expenses.