subject: 5 Stages Of Personal Injury Litigation [print this page] Personal injury lawsuits are not quite similar to the courtroom dramas you see on TV or in the movies.
There are no shouting lawyers, no passionate exchange of words and sometimes the case is settled even before the actual trial began.
Personal injury litigation usually consists of exchanging of evidence and taking stock of where your case stands against the arguments of the other party.
It is more of a process or a procedure that follows certain steps and there are about 5 stages that a case may go through before it is concluded
The 5 stages of personal injury litigation are:
Pleading
Personal injury lawsuits start once a plaintiff files a complaint to a proper court.
Once the court officially receives the complaint, it will then inform the accused or the defendant of the charges against him.
The defendant will have thirty days to respond to the accusations.
The defendants response could be any the following:
Admit to the charges
Deny the charges
Claim insufficient information for a response
Discovery
Once the complaint is finalized and accepted by the opposing parties, the lawsuit will then proceed to the next stage.
On this stage, both parties will exchange statements and evidence as they build their own cases.
The following procedures are often used to get information from the other:
Interrogations
Demand for documents
Admission of allegations
Deposition
Subpoenas to get documents
Majority of lawsuits are usually settled during this stage as both parties are now familiar with the standings of their case.
Trial
If the opposing parties did not come to any agreement, the case will go into trial.
Trials for personal injury cases are similar to criminal trials where both parties are given a chance to present their case before a judge and/or a jury.
After each parties have presented their case, the judge/or jury will render a verdict based on the weight of the arguments from both sides.
The burden of proof usually falls on the plaintiff.
This means that the plaintiff must provide clear and convincing evidence to prove that the defendant should be held liable.
The standards for civil lawsuits are not as strict compare to criminal trials where the evidence should prove that the defendant is guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
That is why there are cases where although the accused was acquitted in a criminal charge, he was still held liable in a civil lawsuit.
Appeal
If the defendant is not happy with the decision, he or she can file an appeal to a higher court.
The appellate court then will review the case to determine if a possible error was made.
The court can then arrive at any of the following decisions:
Uphold the decision
Reverse the decision
Remand the case to the original court
Enforcement
If the verdict still stands, even after the appeals, the defendant will now have to follow the terms of the judgment.
This usually involves paying monetary damages awarded by the courts to the plaintiff.
