Hey, wait, what’s that? A person’s lawsuit will probably never go to court? How can that be? Well, as any lawyer could tell you, the answer is simple: the vast majority of personal injury cases are settled out of court. There is a good chance that this may be true with your personal injury lawsuit. Read on to learn more!
Accident Lawyer in Cambridge know that personal injury law is complex. This is what makes the entire process of crafting a lawsuit and taking it to court very complex and uncertain. All personal injury lawsuits have a ‘discovery’ period. This is the period in which the parties exchange information in the attempt to discover and prove evidence that will turn the final verdict (of the lawsuit) in their favor. For example, an investigator may find a critical piece of evidence that proves you were partially at fault, or the defendant may say inappropriate things that inadvertently count against him or her because he or she was under pressure.
Unfortunately, uncertainty does not stop there. There is no guarantee that witnesses will testify the way they are supposed to in court, especially under cross-examination. There is even the chance that they will be no-shows. Additionally, judges and juries can make wayward rulings. Of course, you always have the option of appealing a judge’s ruling. However, appeals trials can take years to happen and can cost several thousands of dollars.
Reasons why settling out of court is better
Your lawyer knows all too well that you are more likely to get the monetary award you want and need if you settle out of court because of the following reasons:
● You can save time – the process of initiating the lawsuit process by filing a personal injury complaint can easily take a year or more. That means you will have to wait at least a year to receive your monetary award, even if you need the money to pay for current medical expenses.
● Lawyers have less work – lawyers would be overwhelmed with all of the work involved with filing and managing lawsuits and trial appearances if all of their cases went to trial. Also, both they and their firms would not make money if all cases went to court since it is very expensive to go to trial.
● There is more privacy – Since many trials are televised, anyone can view a trial. This makes a lot of your private and personal information easily available to the general public. You probably don’t want that information to be public, and it won’t be if you settle out of court.
● You’ll be under less stress – going to trial is very stressful. Everyone involved needs to take time out of their busy lives to appear in court and testify. People don’t like to do this. This is especially true with plaintiffs because they will likely endure a great deal of emotional stress by reliving particularly painful aspects of the accident or personal injury incident. Most plaintiffs would rather avoid this by settling out of court.
● The defendant does not have to admit liability – all the defendant has to do is pay the plaintiff a sum of money and then he or she (the defendant) can forget about the case and incident.
It is in your favor to settle out of court as your personal injury lawyer knows and will probably decide to settle out of court for the reasons mentioned above.
