Illinois personal injury lawyers are used to help car crash accidents victims receive proper compensation for injuries. Even though an Illinois personal injury lawyer can take a case to trial, you should know that not every case goes to trial. So, check out this FAQ about whether or not there will be a trial in your Illinois personal injury case.
Will there be a trial in my personal injury case?
As in Illinois personal injury lawyer, I know people injured in car crashes and other accidents have a lot of questions. You might wonder if your case will go to trial. That’s a reasonable question. Please check out this article about frequently asked questions regarding going to trial and a personal injury case in Illinois.
Is it possible to get a trial in my personal injury case?
If your personal injury case is based on a reasonable claim, then it is certainly possible that you could have a trial to get your day in court. However, just because something is possible does not mean it should happen. There are many factors to consider when determining if a case should go to trial, or not.
What does it cost to go to trial in a personal injury case?
There are certainly costs with going to trial in a personal injury case. However, most Illinois personal injury lawyers do not ask a client to pay those costs. In fact, the way it most commonly works is that the personal injury and lawyer will pay for all of the costs associated with going to trial, and will only get reimbursed if The client receives compensation for injuries through a settlement or a verdict and collection of a judgment.
In summary, an injured person will not have to pay out of pocket for expenses associated with trial. But the cost of a trial can end up reducing what an injured person will receive at the end.
For example, suppose an injured person wins a verdict at trial and receives a judgment for $100,000. After attorneys fees and other expenses associated with trial, there might be only $50,000 left for the injured victim.
This is a fact that many personal injury lawyers like to hide. Even though a client does not have to pay for a trial before it happens, there is ultimately a cost.
Therefore, the cost of litigation should be considered when a client is choosing whether or not to take a settlement to avoid trial.
How long does it take to get a trial in a personal injury case in Illinois?
The court process isn’t exactly fast. In fact, there are a lot of procedural steps about which many people are not familiar. This can be frustrating because when a person is hurt in a car crash or some other type of accident, they are usually anxious to receive compensation.
All the steps of a case are way beyond the scope of this article. However, you should know that it can take more than one year and maybe more than two years to get a case to trial. That may seem like a long time. In fact, most lawyers wish it were quicker. However, in an Illinois personal injury case, both sides have the right to respond to various documents in writing, to gather evidence, and to prepare for trial. That’s why you can take a long time to get a case to trial.
It’s going to trial the best option?
Whether or not to go to trial is a decision to be made between an injured person and the Illinois personal injury lawyer.
There are many factors to take into account. And going to trial may not always be the best option.
A common marketing tactic for personal injury justwith lawyers to use is to talk about big verdicts they won, implying that the lawyers ability to obtain a large verdict means that other injured people will also get more money. However, that is not necessarily the case.
Sometimes people are injured, and it’s not their fault. However, that doesn’t mean every injury is worth a humongous amount of money.
Going to trial does not ensure that an injured person will receive more compensation when compared to settlement. Further, going to trial can take a very long time, and it can be better to receive compensation through a settlement much sooner than it would be received if the case went to trial.
Therefore, it is not always better to go to trial. Many times, in fact most times, it is better to settle a case for reasonable compensation.
What causes a trial in a personal injury case?
Many times, trials are caused because an insurance company does not want to take proper responsibility to pay compensation to the injured person. For example, a person injured in a car crash might might have the following type of damages: pain and suffering, lost wages, and medical bills. Insurance adjusters, the people who tried to make deals about what to pay, always try to pay as little as possible. It’s their goal. For example, they might very well know that by the time you are done with treatment your medical bills will total more than $40,000. However, they might offer you $20,000 to try to save money for the insurance company; they often try to pressure people into taking deals they shouldn’t.
Some insurance companies have arrangements with their insurance defense lawyers that makes litigating a case more likely. For example, some insurance companies pay a flat fee to their insurance defense lawyers. In the situation like that, the insurance company doesn’t have as much incentive to avoid a trial because they’re legal bills will be capped at the flat fee. Insurance companies like that can be much more likely to lowball injured people.
An Illinois personal injury lawyer can help protect you from tricks pulled by insurance adjusters and insurance lawyers.
Can I handle a personal injury case myself if I don’t want to go to trial?
In Illinois, an accident victims have the right to represent themselves. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Just some of the problems are as follows: insurance companies make lowball settlement offers, injured people make deals too quickly and miss out on compensation for medical bills, injured people say the wrong thing and destroy their entire cases.