How long before your case is resolved?
Your Personal Injury Attorney talks about Case Time: How long before your case is resolved? Have you seen those legal dramas on TV where the client meets with his lawyer on Monday and the case is resolved by Friday? If that was a true depiction of the way things work, we would be living in a fantasy world. The reality is that the legal system does not move that quickly.
Bearing in mind the pace and complexity of the legal system, we should make one thing clear straight away: each and every case is different. Thus, it’s impossible to predict exactly how much time your case is going to take. Be wary of anyone who promises you otherwise.
As hard as it is to predict the time your case will take, it’s just as it is impossible to know right off the bat how much your case might be worth.
As a first step, you have to determine who it is that you are going to claim against. Then, you must file a complaint in the proper court. Once you do that, you are referred to as the Plaintiff and the person you are suing becomes the Defendant. The complaint contains your version of the facts. However, regardless of the specific details of the accident, if it is a negligence case, the lawsuit has to be filed within 4 years in court. By negligence we mean cases such as an auto accident, a slip-and-fall, etc.
The complaint must also ask for damages or other relief. In order to come up with the amount that is being sought as compensation, one has to take into account the injury that the person suffered. Keep in mind that the more serious the injury the longer the case is going to take. One must also take into account if the injured person needed surgery, as well as whether they had complications after the surgery.
There are just too many things to consider when trying to determine precisely how long a case is going to take and it boils down to how the accident happened.
What sort of accident was it? Did you get rear-ended by a truck? Hit by someone who ran a red light? Did you slip and fall in someone’s property or in a public place? Or maybe someone fell off a roof while fixing a few loose shingles? In some cases you may have to sue multiple persons: the employer, or maybe the homeowner or even the General Contractor. Still, keep in mind that in this case we are not talking about work, since that would take us to the topic of worker’s comp, and that’s a totally different issue.
In conclusion, there are so many factors to consider that it is impossible to give all of the cases the same timeframe.
Talk to your Personal Injury Attorney about this or any other legal subject that might be on your mind. He’ll tell you what to do or where to go, and even if it’s worth it for you to do anything about it.
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