Court Is In Session: Your Personal Injury Trial

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It's Personal: A Personal Injury Law Collection When you're badly injured, the last thing you want to think about is filling out paperwork, searching for an attorney, or trying to gather evidence. Yet, these steps are necessary if you want to collect the compensation you deserve due to someone else's negligence. The more you know about personal injury cases and hiring an attorney, the less stressful this time will be. We've created this website to offer basic personal injury law advice for anyone who has been injured or who may become injured in the future. Keep in mind that if you've been injured in a car accident, due to medical neglect, or even by slipping in someone else's parking lot, your case qualifies a personal injury case — and thus you'll find our collection of articles relevant.

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In almost every case, personal injury claims are settled. That means the other side agrees to offer you a sum of money to end the case. While this way of doing things works most of the time, some cases cannot be resolved without the help of a judge and jury. Taking a case to civil court may be necessary when there are complicated accident matters to be resolved and when the accident victim's injuries are more serious than usual. All personal injury trials proceed in much the same way, and a lot more goes on before the trial begins than many realize. You might want to consider the trial just the final part of a several part process. Read on to find out more.

Mediate Your Way to a Settlement

Some courts require that the parties participate in mediation. Mediation brings opposing parties together under the guidance of a trained mediation expert to work to bring the parties closer to a resolution. If you can resolve your case, you can avoid the time and expense of a court case. Mediation is not the same as a trial, however, and may only work for parties that are already close to a resolution.

Discovery Gets Underway

Part of trial preparation is discovery. Each side uses a variety of discovery motions to ask for and comply with requests for information about the case. By the time the case comes to trial, the basic facts of the case are well known by each side.

Voir Dire

Once your personal injury attorney tells you that jury selection is underway, you know a trial is imminent. A jury can be chosen in as little as a day, but it can take a few days in some cases. Your attorney will have a specific type of juror in mind for the case and so will the other side (the insurance company's legal defense team, in most cases).

The Trial

You may have seen trials on television, but being personally involved in a trial is an enlightening experience. You, the plaintiff, get to go first in presenting your case. Your attorney will be ready with a presentation of witnesses (both expert and eye-witnesses) and the submission of evidence. After your attorney rests the case, the defense puts on their own witnesses and evidence that refutes your side. It can be difficult to watch the validity of your evidence and witnesses being questioned. Once complete, the case goes to the jury for a decision. You may have the opportunity to appeal a negative verdict if you have good cause. To find out more about this process, speak to your personal injury attorney.

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