What Should I Expect During a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

If you’ve been injured by someone else’s negligence, whether that’s on their property, in a car accident, or from some other situation, you have the right to bring a personal injury lawsuit. The way that lawsuit goes will be unique to your case, and a lawyer with experience in this area of law here in Houston, TX will be able to give you more details. But there are some things that are fairly universal.

What Should I Expect During a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Houston, TX?

A Consultation

Working with an experienced lawyer is the best chance for receiving a fair settlement in negotiations, and studies show that those who have lawyers tend to get higher settlements – even after legal fees are considered – than those who try to go it alone. And, of course, if your lawsuit goes to court, you’ll need a legal professional able to represent you throughout the litigation process.

Hopefully, you have already contacted an attorney, but if you haven’t, be sure to do so as soon as possible. A good attorney with experience in the local area will be able to give you very specific advice and direction based on their understanding of Texas law as well as their familiarity with the local courts and their experience in negotiating these cases with insurance companies.

During the consultation, you should expect to give all the details you have about the accident and the injuries it caused you. You’ll want to also be able to give an idea of the expenses you’ve incurred so far, what the prognosis is for your injuries, and what any police or other official report says about liability. Expect the lawyer to ask some detailed questions and then to be honest with you. A good lawyer will not tell you there’s a case when there isn’t, and a good lawyer will also give you an idea of what to expect specifically given your circumstances.

Filing a Car Accident Lawsuit

The first step is usually to have your lawyer reach out to the insurance company on your behalf, and in some cases, this really moves negotiations along quickly. Sometimes insurance companies don’t negotiate in very good faith until a victim gets a lawyer. At that point, the insurance company knows there’s a chance of a lawsuit and may start offering more.

But if they’re not willing to offer a fair settlement that covers your damages and losses, it then becomes necessary to file a lawsuit. Be aware that a lawsuit can take months and sometimes even years to complete. Hiring a lawyer is the best way, though, to get things done as quickly as is possible as well as eliminate most of the stress of it for you personally.

Preparing and Filing

Once you see that your only way forward is by filing a personal injury lawsuit, your lawyer will prepare and then file a complaint. This is simply a legal document that details your case. A copy of this complaint is served to the other driver and their insurance company to let them know that you are filing a lawsuit.

Your lawyer will file this complaint with one of the local courts. In Texas, you can generally choose to file either in the county where the complaint took place, the county where you live, or the county where the defendant either lives or does business. In some cases, the local court may refer a case to federal court. This usually happens only when the defendant lives or does business in another state, federal laws have been violated, or occasionally if the complaint is requesting a particularly large sum of compensation.

If you have been working with an attorney since quite soon after the accident, your lawyer should have most of what they need to prepare and file the claim. If you haven’t, know that they will need the police report, if there was one, any other official record that may have been made, all your medical records, and any other documentation related to what you’ve lost. It can be quite time-consuming to go through all this and calculate everything, but it will be faster and easier with a lawyer who has done all this before.

Wait for the Response

The defendant has a set amount of time to respond to your complaint: generally 60 days in Texas. Many times, what happens first is the defendant and their lawyers file a motion to dismiss the claim. In some cases, they may bring a counterclaim. A counterclaim is when the defendant brings a claim similar to the one you are bringing, but against you. You’ll want your lawyer to tell you what to do next once you get the response.

The Discovery Process

Once the claim is officially moving, you enter the discovery phase. During this process, your lawyer and the lawyers for the other side review all the evidence for the case, and both sides can request information from the other side.

It is sometimes a tactic of the insurance company to drag this phase on for an extended period, constantly requesting extra documents or claiming they need to interview a witness over and over again. Your lawyer can help you to minimize these issues, but this process can take months.

Going to Trial

Sometimes, a summary judgment or several of them will be granted at the end of the discovery process. A summary judgment is simply a motion to resolve certain points about the case that both sides can agree on. There might be agreement, for example, about liability. Or, the summary judgment may completely resolve the claim, if you were able to demonstrate that there’s no way to dispute the facts of your case. In most cases, however, the case is not completely resolved in this way and goes on to court.

At this point, your attorney will represent you and present the evidence for your case in a convincing way. Either side in the courtroom can and often do hire expert witnesses to give testimony. Expert witnesses are usually there to explain difficult concepts to the court in more laymen’s terms. For example, a medical expert might be able to explain your injuries in better detail or justify why you will need ongoing treatment for them. An accident reconstruction expert knows how to look at evidence from an accident, such as skid marks or the way that certain debris is lying in a photo, and understand what happened and explain it to the court.

Once both sides have presented their case and had a chance to cross-examine witnesses for the opposing side, the court will make a judgment. Depending on whether this is a bench trial or a jury trial, the person or persons making the decision will be either a judge or a jury.

The process of bringing a lawsuit can be long and complicated, but the best way forward is always to work with an experienced Houston personal injury lawyer. Contact Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner in Houston, TX today for a free consultation on your case.