The law that deals with legal claims for harm and injury to an individual is known as personal injury. Personal injury falls under a bigger category of tort law but it concerns itself with bodily injury and injuries to the mind and emotions a person as opposed to the major areas of tort law that related to property, contract and criminal acts. There are many forms of injury and even the smallest and most minor of cuts is considered personal injury. A legal claim can rest on deprivation for proper medical care and loss of wages in the event that the injury results in inability to work.
While the main goal of personal injury law and filing for personal injury claims is restitution and compensation, personal injury cases have varying lengths of time to get settled. This is most especially so with unique circumstances surrounding your case. The first element that takes much time in personal injury suits is the evaluation of the injury. To determine the full extent of the injuries you suffer, doctors have to be consulted and sometimes, in the most serious of cases, it might take a year or more after the accident for a doctor to say if your injuries are permanent.
The process of personal injury cases also take time. Discovery, depositions and pretrial motions are made. The discovery period alone can last up to six months or more. This gives the plaintiff and defendant time to find out all they can about the other’s case. Lists of witnesses, experts and other statements with regard to the case are exchanged between your lawyer and the other party’s lawyer. Before depositions occur, your attorney will also have to prepare you for answering questions under oath. Various pretrial motions will be made to narrow the issues further before trial.
After this step, mediation and settlement is done to see if parties would agree on certain issues and aspects of the case. If your personal injury case doesn’t settle, it will then go to trial where a jury will then decide what your injury is worth. Even scheduling your case on the court’s docket takes time. Trial can last for two days or two weeks. Right after that, there might be appeals and other motions. Also, it has been found that there’s a better bargaining power for personal injury cases for people who don’t rush into settlements.