Here’s what you need to know about what to expect. The first thing is that concentrate on getting all the medical treatment that you need. So important upfront that you make sure all your injuries are getting properly treated and diagnosed by professionals until you either stabilize or completely recover from whatever the injuries are. A lot of times the cases are kind of in a holding pattern because you don’t want to wrap it up and submit the claim or the demand to try and resolve it until you know the full extent of what the injuries are.

After that, then what the attorney will do is gather up all the medical bills and records. They’ll gather up any information needed to prove who caused whatever the event, the collision, the crash, whatever caused it, how it happened. And then they’ll also get some more information from you about how these injuries have affected you. Have you missed time from work? Were there things that you were doing in terms of your activities and limitations? How has this really affected you as a person?

Once they gather that information together, a lot of times they will attempt to submit a demand or see if they can resolve your case through that way. Depending on what’s going on, that may be successful or they may need to file a lawsuit. If they have to file a lawsuit, then what you can expect is a little bit different. For starters, if a lawsuit’s filed, things tend to take longer. That’s just the way that it works.

Typically after it’s filed, there’ll be a process known as “discovery”. That’s where each side gets to send out requests for information, documents, things that they want to gather to try and help present their case. After that’s done, a lot of times you’ll have what’s known as a “deposition”. A deposition is a chance where each side under oath can ask the other side, the party, questions about how it happened, what their injuries are, what their medical treatment were, again, to gather information.

There’s another process after that known as a “medical examination”. Each side can hire their own experts to try and verify if they think the injuries that are being claimed are caused by what happened in the crash. After that, a lot of times we can have a process known as “mediation”. A mediation is an informal attempt once all that information is in place to see if we can get the case settled or resolved.

If that’s not successful, then a lot of times you’re taking the next step as far as getting ready for trial. So experts can be retained, sometimes more experts, and things are really gearing up towards a potential jury trial which then would lead to an ultimate decision, a verdict, as to whether or not you’ll be successful and there’s a recovery.