What is the process of the typical personal injury case, from accident to settlement?
Generally speaking, after your accident, you’ll file a report with a police officer or be transported to the hospital. You will then want to seek counsel and contact your insurance company. At that point, we will send a letter of representation to your insurance company and all communication will then be between the company and your attorney.
Now, your only responsibility is to get better and continuously update your attorney on the progress of your treatment. Once your treatment is complete, we will order all of your medical records for analysis and draft what is called a “settlement demand.” This will be used as our basis for negotiating out your claim.
When we negotiate out a claim, we take all factors into consideration and determine if we can settle your case. Once you — and this decision is yours alone — say that the settlement is okay, we will proceed with the settlement.
If you’re not satisfied with the settlement, we will proceed with a lawsuit, depending on the value of the case. In the state of Nevada, there’s what’s called a “mandatory arbitration” process, during which any that has a value less than 50,000 dollars, but more than 10,000 goes into a non-binding arbitration process where the discovery, depositions and interrogatories are done, as are requests for admissions, requests for production of documents, and expert disclosures.
We then present that information to an arbitrator, who will determine an award. If either side is not satisfied with the arbitration award, they have a right to a trial de novo, in which the information collected is presented before a jury. If your case is worth less than 50,000 dollars, your case will be put into a short trial program, a one-day, three-person jury trial where each side gets three hours to present their case. If your case is worth more than 50,000 dollars, we would present that case before an eight-person jury, in a trial that can last for days. Generally speaking, the waiting period for a short trial can be anywhere from six to 12 months, while the waiting period for a longer trial is 18 to 36 months.
If you do go to trial and an award is granted, either side can appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court, which could take several years.
