While every situation is different, with unique circumstances, causes, and consequences, the personal injury process is more or less the same no matter what type of accident caused your injuries. If you have been injured in any kind of accident, and are planning on seeking compensation for your injuries, here are the four main steps you should expect to take on your road to securing financial compensation.
Of course, speaking with an experienced Monmouth County injury attorney before taking any other action is an extremely important, and beneficial, action to take. An experienced injury attorney will be able to provide you with guidance throughout the entire process, prevent you from making the common mistakes which often prevent injured parties from being able to recover compensation, and help you ensure that at the end of the recovery process, you have secured a settlement or verdict which properly meets the financial needs of you and your family.
While no one works for free, most personal injury lawyers operate on a contingency fee basis, meaning that they will cover all of the expenses of the personal injury claims process, and only take payment for those expenses and their services upon securing a recovery. Importantly, in most injury cases, the greater total amount of compensation that you receive by having an attorney will pay for their services and often more, with the added benefit that without an attorney, you run the severe risk of not being able to recover any compensation at all!
After speaking with your Monmouth County injury attorney, you will then need to file your initial complaint regarding your intentions to seek compensation for your injuries. For most personal injury cases in New Jersey, this complaint needs to be filed within two years of the date of the accident. This deadline is known legally as the “statute of limitations”, and while for most injury cases this deadline is 2 years, it is always better to file as quickly as possible following an accident for a variety of reasons, especially for the reason of being able to preserve any and all evidence related to your accident and the resulting injuries.
While the statute of limitations is usually 2 years for personal injury claims in New Jersey, there are some important exceptions. For accidents involving minors, the statute of limitations is 2 years after that minor reaches the age of 18. Additionally, if you are bringing an injury claim against a federal agency, you may need to provide further documents along with your initial complaint, and you may have as little as 30 days to actually do so! Finally, personal injury complaints against public entities in New Jersey must be filed within 90 days of the accident.
What this tells us is that the sooner you speak with your Red Bank injury lawyer, the sooner you will have a much better understanding of the deadlines and requirements involved with actually filing your injury complaint, and the sooner you can ultimately recover compensation for your injuries.
Now that your complaint has been filed, you and your injury attorney, and the insurance company(s) of the negligent party(s) will begin gathering all of the evidence relevant to your injury case in order to determine the extent of liability of all of the involved parties, and the extent of the damages you have suffered.
This process involves things like formal requests for documents and information, written questions (interrogatories) and interviews with the various parties involved (depositions), both being answered under oath, consultation with medical professionals, financial analysts, and experts in any fields related to your accident, and the gathering of evidence like medical reports, police records, and video and photo evidence, all of which help paint the clearest possible picture for both sides regarding what happened, what were the consequences, and who is responsible.
This can be a very lengthy process, but remember that this is your one and only shot to recover full and fair compensation, so be patient!
Once both sides have digested, analyzed, and accounted for all of the evidence and information gathered regarding your accident, injuries, and claims to compensation, the negotiation and settlement process will begin. While it has been estimated that almost 97% of all personal injury cases in the U.S. are settled before a trial verdict is reached, you and your Freehold personal injury attorney will always want to be prepared to go to trial, regardless of the circumstances or potential for settlement. Not only may a jury verdict ultimately become necessary for recovering full and fair compensation, but the mere fact that you are prepared for trial will also demonstrate the seriousness of your claim to the insurance company, and can often urge them to make a better settlement offer than they would otherwise.
Remember, as soon as you accept any kind of settlement for your injuries, that settlement cannot be modified after the fact, nor can you file a new complaint for those same injuries. With this in mind, it is important to find the right balance between recovering compensation as quickly as possible for the financial sake of your family and ensuring that the settlement you accept fully accounts for all of your expenses and damages.
This is another area where having an experienced Freehold injury attorney on your side can be of great benefit, as they will be able to advise you when a settlement offer is fair to you, when you should continue to negotiate, and when your best option may be having a jury of your peers decide the matter. While this decision is yours to make, having this experienced legal counsel to advise you can be an invaluable tool when making this evaluation.
If you are able to successfully follow these four key steps in the personal injury claims process, then you should be able to recover full and fair compensation for your injuries, and the damages your accident has caused to your life and well-being.
At The Law Office of Chamlin, Uliano & Walsh, our attorneys have extensive experience recovering compensation for clients across Red Bank, Freehold, Wall, West Long Branch, Monmouth County, and throughout New Jersey in personal injury and workers’ compensation claims of all kinds. Our firm believes in providing each of our clients with highly knowledgeable, effective, and compassionate legal counsel, and that by keeping our clients informed and involved throughout the injury recovery process, we can better understand their unique needs and concerns and work to secure the outcome which best meets those needs and concerns.
To speak with our firm today in a free and confidential consultation regarding your accident, the injuries you have suffered, and your options for recovering compensation, please contact us online, or through our West Long Branch, NJ office at (732) 440-3950.
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