Very few personal injury lawsuits are tried and settled through a jury verdict; a huge percent are settled before or during the trial. Both the defendant and injured party accrue many benefits when the case is kept out of the courtroom and out of the jury’s hands. Below is information on why it makes more sense to hire a personal injury lawyer in Georgia to negotiate a lawsuit’s settlement.
On filing of a civil lawsuit, serious settlement discussions can never take place until the defense attorney has done the pretrial investigation. Some of the tools used during this discovery stage include depositions and interrogatories. In most cases, insurance firms never engage in serious settlement negotiations until they have all the facts required to make a firm decision.
In more complex and bigger cases, defense attorneys do not engage in serious settlement talks until a plaintiff’s lawyer locates an expert witness. This way they wait until they are reassured that the plaintiff’s lawyer has done all the work needed to make sure that a case is ready for trial.
In smaller injury cases, where the attorneys know each other, one attorney will pick the phone and talk about settlement. A plaintiff’s lawyer might or might not write an actual demand letter, and the defense may choose to or not to respond with a counteroffer. Once the defense thinks that a demand is too high, she or he can simply ignore the demand or say they think that it is too high and the insurer will not make any further counteroffers. If there is a counteroffer, bargaining starts. If the attorneys are not able to settle, they most likely go into mediation.
In a few small cases and a majority of large personal injury cases, clients and lawyers will attend mediation. Nowadays, most courts require that parties attending the mediation settle the case. The mediation process is carried out via a judge not sitting on the case or a private mediator. The mediation process can go on for several hours and even days and although it does not always work, it has an excellent record of accomplishment of cases settled.
Since settlement negotiations can go on for a very long time, one should not be discouraged; there are many reasons why this could be taking place. However, so long as both attorneys are talking to each other, settlement negotiations are bound to continue. Settlement occurs once a client has accepted the offer and the personal injury lawyer in Georgia lets the defense attorney know of the outcome via letter, fax, phone, email, in person or a combination of all. Remember once a settlement has been accepted, the case is final and almost zero chance of a court reversing the agreement.
You can get lawyers and legal advice on The Law Firm of Kathy McArthur. Find lawyers that are focused on justice and proper service delivery in personal injury cases.
