How Do Personal Injury Cases Work?

Personal injury cases are complex, and they can take time to do right. The ultimate goal is to get you the compensation you need to not only recover both physically and monetarily but to get your life back to normal. This requires building an air-tight case and using it as leverage to negotiate with the negligent party’s insurance company so they will do the right thing and offer the compensation you need to pay for the costs of your injury.

Unfortunately, insurance companies don’t always acquiesce so easily. They have teams of lawyers and deep pockets, which is why they sometimes take these cases to court. If they do, the attorneys at Kanner & Pintaluga are prepared to fight for your rights at trial.

• The first real step is filing a complaint with the court. This complaint will lay out your argument and essentially explain what happened, why you’re holding the other party responsible for your injury and request compensation of a specific amount.
• Pre-trial and discovery begins after the complaint is filed. Both sides will exchange evidence and information, which will include things like your medical records, bills, witness testimony, security video or dash cam video, accident photos and any other investigatory information that’s been gathered. The length of this phase is highly dependent on the type of injury and case. It may only take a few weeks, or it make take many months.
• During the pre-trial period, especially after the defenses’ attorneys have had a chance to see your case, settlement negotiations will begin. It’s often cheaper for the insurance company to simply pay you what you need to recover and get back to a normal life rather than go to trial and spend thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal defense. However, there are situations where the negligent party’s insurance company won’t want to settle, in which case trial is the only option.
• Depending on the trial and venue either a judge or jury will ultimately decide on the validity of your claim. Your Alabama personal injury attorneys will artfully present your case, breaking down the facts and building a narrative timeline of what occurred and the life-changing impacts of the negligent party’s actions. If you win in court, the judge or jury will then decide on what fair compensation for your injury should be.