When you get in a car accident, there are a lot of things on your mind. Medical bills, car repair, insurance premiums going up, etc. One of things that often crosses people’s minds, however, is the process of getting compensation if they were injured in a car accident where they had no fault. It is not a fun question to have to ask, but it is an important one for many. Specifically, what can a person expect from the settlement and trial process?
What to expect after a car accident from the settlement and trial process
The first thing you should do after a car accident, besides reporting it to the police and your insurance, is to look into hiring an attorney. You could technically go without one, but it would make your claim significantly more difficult to go in your favor. When you hire a lawyer, such as a car accident lawyer at Caldwell Wenzel & Asthana, what you are getting is not just someone who will act on your behalf in these matters. No, you also get someone who has a bevy of experience and skills that will make your case as strong as possible. However, an attorney may decide to not take on your case, depending on the circumstances involved. They may have a conflict of interest, the case may be above their pay grade, or it may simply be too weak a case for them to take. If they do take on your case, however, they may do some additional investigation into potential evidence to strengthen it even further. A good attorney knows how to win, but one of the most important skills a lawyer may confer to their clients is the ability to identify issues with a case and navigate them. Sometimes this involves finding ways to circumvent them, sometimes this will involve resolving the issues. Often though, this will come in the form of settling out of court.
In truth, most cases involving a car accident do not go to civil court. This is because, for both parties involved, the expenses and risk of potentially losing the case are too great to gamble. It can be even worse for the losing side to go to trial. For the defendant, going forward and losing means they have to pay more than they normally would have. For the plaintiff, losing in court after not taking a settlement means that they make nothing instead of something. Both sides are going to hope that the other accepts their settlement offer, yet that is not a realistic expectation. More realistic is that both parties will go back and forth on settlement negotiation, trying to find a happy middle ground where the plaintiff’s damages are adequately covered.
Unfortunately, not all settlement negotiations are going to be productive or go anywhere. Sometimes, a settlement negotiation will simply not get any momentum. Other times, the settlement process will not take place at all. In this situation, you may be dealing with a highly confident defendant or a highly foolish one. Either way, in this scenario, you are going to have to deal with this by taking it to trial. A good attorney is good at avoiding this kind of outcome, but they cannot guarantee it. Especially not without accepting too low a settlement offer. As such, a lawyer has to be equipped to take things to court as well. Basically, “hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”
Before the case can actually spin its wheels, the first step to take is, basically, for both sides to present their arguments in favor or in opposition to this case going forward. They may also present evidence to substantiate their claims, which includes (but is not limited to) the police report, witness testimony, photos, videos, and physical evidence from the scene of the accident. Essentially, the goal here is to convince the judge that your claim against the defendant has a likelihood of being true. This is unlike the burden of proof to get a verdict in your favor, which necessitates that you have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had some degree of responsibility.
When determining liability in the judgment, there are several factors that have to be considered. Perhaps the most important of these is to figure out how responsible the plaintiff was in their injuries. In a situation where no fault can be placed in the lap of the plaintiff, there is an expectation that they get all of what they are entitled to in the judgment. However, some states determine how liable a person can be to get a payout. A few states deem that the plaintiff must be zero percent liable in order to get anything, while other states allow even for 99 percent (though the judgment will be reduced by 99 percent in turn). Some states take an approach that is more middle of the road. They either determine whether a person is entitled to a judgment based on whether the plaintiff was less than 50 percent liable or less than 51 percent liable. Again, this will result in the plaintiff getting whatever percentage liable they were taken off their judgment.
