Personal Injury Attorney

If you were injured in an accident, you might be beginning the process of a personal injury lawsuit. While you may have a lawyer to help you out, there are certain questions you might want answered right now. For example, how long is it going to take to reach a settlement? One can’t say for sure, as there are unique factors that affect every case, but the following are some factors that may help you determine whether you can plan on a short or long time to reach a settlement.

Determining Liability

Even when it seems obvious who is at fault for an injury, the party of the accused will want to conduct an investigation to be sure. This could make a case last a lot longer. For example, if someone was driving drunk, ran a red light and hit you, it may be obvious to you their drunk driving caused the accident. There’s a possibility the breathalyzer test wasn’t working correctly and the individual actually wasn’t drunk, though. There’s a possibility the street lights malfunctioned and the individual didn’t actually run a red light. There’s also a possibility you were driving irresponsibly yourself. The other party’s lawyer will want to investigate all of those possibilities to determine liability.

Severity of the Injuries

You may need to wait until you know the full extent of injuries before you can file a lawsuit. Of course, there are situations in which you could seek future medical costs and future lost wages, but you may receive a greater amount if you know those numbers beforehand. Whether your injuries caused permanent damage could play a role in your settlement as well, so you would want to wait to find out a complete diagnosis before completing the lawsuit.

Receiving Records

When your lawyer is working on your personal injury case, he or she will want to get a hold of as many records as possible. This includes the possible police report from the accident, medical documents, insurance documents, medical bills, and other important documents and records. This will help your lawyer build a case, but sometimes certain entities are slow to get the records to the lawyer.

Contacting a Lawyer for Help

If you were the victim of any type of accident that caused injury, you deserve proper compensation to help you get through this tough time. Contact an attorney, like a personal injury attorney from Rispoli & Borneo, P.C., to help you learn how long your case will take, what you can expect in a settlement, and other important information.