Video: Personal Injury Cases - What Cases Need To Go Into Litigation

Question: Can you predict from the beginning of a personal injury case whether it will need to be litigated or a lawsuit needs to be filed?

You can never predict that. I think it's important for people to understand what the two parts of a case are. There is the pre suit process which is where you help the person get the treatment they need, and make sure you're getting all the medical records and bills together to present to the insurance company. This is all happening while we are trying to negotiate the settlement that is in your best interest. The second part, which is obviously the actual lawsuit where you filed the proper papers with the court.

So what actually happens when a lawsuit is filed?

So when a lawsuit is filed, it generally means the insurance company has not made fair offers on your case. So, we go to the client say: we don't think this is this offers high enough. Or the client tells us: I don't think this offers high enough. We then file the lawsuit papers with the court and then we go through that process of basically pushing the insurance company towards trial in order to get them to offer fair money. It doesn't mean the case needs to go to trial. Most cases settle before trial. It just means that we have to press that insurance company and let them know we're ready to try the case if need be.

In your experience, have you found that there are certain personal injury attorneys out there that will not file lawsuits?

Yes, absolutely. Oftentimes an attorney will handle a case only in the beginning phase. They will present a settlement offer to the client, the client doesn't want to take it and the attorney will say, well I'm not going to file the lawsuit. Then they'll turn the case back and not want to move further with the case. We take many of these cases over, and we end up filing the lawsuit, and ultimately getting a reasonable recovery for the client.  Most insurance companies know which law offices take cases to trial. This is important leverage to ensure fair compensation is offered for your case.

Since 1962 we have been supporting our clients here in SW Florida. If you have a personal entry case and would like a free attorney consultation with a firm that has trial experts, please reach out to us at Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice, Purtz, Smith & Smith, P.A..