Can You End Up Owing Money After Your Personal Injury Lawsuit?

You usually do not have to owe money after your personal injury lawsuit. If you succeed, the settlement will include legal fees. If you fail, the lawyer will most likely not charge you.

This should be of great relief to individuals who are considering a personal injury lawsuit but who don't necessarily have much in the way of disposable income. Personal injuries often take a hefty chunk out of one's finances initially, especially if the injury makes an individual unable to work. Medical bills can pile up quickly.

However, legal fees are not something that people considering a personal injury lawsuit in a civil court should have to worry about.

Personal Injury Lawyers' System

Most personal injury lawyers have a system by which they judge whether a lawsuit can be won before they even take it to trial. They will interview you, typically in a free initial consultation, to determine whether or not your personal injury lawsuit can be won. If not, they will apologize, and you are free to seek a second opinion with another personal injury lawyer. However, if they do take on your case, they will work to make sure that you win. You will know that they are doing their utmost when they agree not to charge you unless and until you win the trial.

Do not trust any personal injury lawyer who wants your money before the case is settled! This is not standard, and you will be able to find a legal professional who knows how it's supposed to be done.

If you win a settlement, a lawyer will generally write his own fees into the expected settlement. A personal injury settlement includes any fees incurred that would not have had to be incurred had the personal injury not been sustained. This includes your lawyer's legal fees. If the lawyer does not win the settlement, make sure that he does not charge you anything. Better yet, make sure that your initial agreement stated that he wouldn't charge you if your case lost.

Don't Worry About Legal Fees

While your lost wages and medical bills will likely still be there if you lose the case, and while you will have to continue paying your bills while the case is ongoing, legal fees are not of this nature. Lawyers know that they wouldn't get any business if they didn't present themselves as a free-until-you-win service because their prime clientele are individuals going through hard times. If you have been injured due to someone else's negligence, consider a personal injury today!

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Personal Injury Lawsuits: Step by Step

When you suffer a personal injury as a result of someone elses negligence, you may be entitled to some sort of compensation. To receive this compensation, you will generally file a personal injury lawsuit.

Stages of a Typical Personal Injury Case

First, you will meet with a personal injury lawyer, who will evaluate your case and determine the likelihood of winning any compensation for you. This first meeting, called an initial consultation, is usually free.

You will need to share the details of your accident with the personal injury lawyer. He or she will then assess your case to determine whether you are legally entitled to damages (the legal word for compensation) under your state's personal injury law.

If the lawyer agrees to take your case, he or she will usually do so on a contingency basis. That means you pay no money up front, but the lawyer keeps a percentage of the compensation he or she gets for you from the negligent party that caused your injury.

The lawyer will then draft a complaint, which is the legal term for the papers that are filed with the court to begin a personal injury lawsuit.

Once the complaint is filed, your lawyer and the lawyer for the other party will begin a sometimes lengthy process known as discovery. This is where each side tries to find out as much information as they can about the accident that prompted your lawsuit. This can include asking for your medical records, information from your employer and other relevant information about you. At the same time, your lawyer will ask for information about the party that caused your injury.

As part of discovery, you may be asked by the other side to give a deposition. You will be asked a series of questions by the opposing lawyer. Some of the questions will be about the incident that gave rise to your injury, while others will be about your personal history. Expect to answer questions about any previous injuries or illnesses you have had, as well as your work history and other issues.

After the evidence has been gathered, each side will usually file motions with the court. These can be anything from a request for the court to dismiss the case to merely asking that some evidence be excluded from the trial for various reasons.

After the court has ruled on the motions, the parties may be required by the court to have at least one session with a court-approved mediator to try to settle the case before trial. Regardless of whether you actually meet with a mediator, your lawyer and the defendant's lawyer will undoubtedly be talking periodically throughout the case to see if they can reach a settlement agreement.

Going to Trial in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

If you and the other party fail to settle the case out of court, the court will schedule the case for trial. Because courts are very busy, your trial date could be months away. Once the trial begins, there will usually be a jury that decides whether you are entitled to any compensation and, if so, how much.

If you win the case and are awarded compensation, you then have to collect it. If an insurance company is required to make the payment on behalf of the losing party, you may have to sign many documents before the check is cut. If the compensation is to be paid by an individual, your lawyer may have to pursue seizing that persons bank accounts or garnishing his or her wages if he or she is unable or unwilling to pay up right away.

Many personal injury lawyers agree that it is often better to settle a case before trial than to go through this sort of lengthy process. Thats a decision you and your lawyer will make together.

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What affects a Personal Injury Claim?

Personal injury claims help drivers and passengers receive compensation for injuries they suffer in auto accidents; however, several factors can affect the amount of compensation received and the time it takes to receive it.

Factors Personal Injury Claims Adjusters Will Review

First, note that you can shorten the amount of time to have your claim settled if you contact your auto insurance company as soon as possible after you are in a car accident. Your company will assign you a claims adjuster who will get the claims process moving.

Factors that the claims adjuster will review include:

• The police report (and whether you obtained a copy). The report will provide specific accident-related details, and will list the investigating officer’s name and badge number. It is not uncommon for insurance company claims adjusters to contact investigating police officers to confirm statements that injured parties make on claims.

• Whether or not―and how quickly―you sought medical attention. Visit the emergency room or your physician as soon as possible after an accident.

• Whether or not injuries you suffered post an auto accident were pre-existing. If you had existing injuries or health conditions prior to the accident, ask your physician to take new x-rays or ultrasounds of those injured areas. Comparisons in the pre-accident scans and the post-accident scans can help to show that the accident did in fact cause additional damage to the area.

• DUI/DWI charges and other citations related to the accident.

• Statements that you make to other drivers or passengers after the accident. Keep in mind that although your emotions might be intense following a car accident, you should avoid making promises or statements of blame.

• Witness testimonies.

• Photographs taken of the accident scene.

• Records and documents that validate the number of days and wages you lost due to the accident.

• Personal injury limits written into your car insurance policy.

When to Hire a Personal Injury Attorney

More often than not, it's best to hire a personal injury lawyer. These lawyers have experience dealing with auto insurance companies and auto claims adjusters and can help you properly file your claim as well as increase the amount of money you're reimbursed and decrease the amount of time you spend waiting for compensation.

Several auto accident attorneys have websites that you can access to complete personal injury evaluations free of charge, but also be sure to talk with family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers who've hired personal injury lawyers in the past.

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In Cleveland, two DePuy ASR lawsuits have been added to the growing number of complaints involving the controversial hip implants. The plaintiffs withdrew from a medical monitoring class action in order to file the personal injury lawsuits, citing recent revision surgeries as the reason for their change of tack.

The men are two of 13 plaintiffs from Indiana and Illinois who filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in November 2010. The complaint sought to cover the costs of medical monitoring rather than win monetary damages for those involved, but none of the plaintiffs had been forced to undergo revision surgery at the time. In their June 12 motion to withdraw from the class action, the pair stated that their hip replacements had since failed, requiring replacements in February of this year. They have now filed their own DePuy hip personal injury lawsuitin Illinois state court.

A similar motion relating to two female plaintiffs was granted last November by Judge David Katz, who is overseeing the coordinated DePuy ASR lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL 2197).

More than 10,000 DePuy ASR lawsuits pending

All over the country, state and federal courts are processing in excess of 10,000 DePuy ASR lawsuits. Each lawsuit makes similar allegations about the high-failure rate of the metal-on-metal hipreplacements and their propensity to cause metallosis (metal poisoning) in recipients. The legal drama surrounding the implants grew more intense after DePuy’s parent company Johnson & Johnsonwithdrew the ASR system from the market in August 2010, in what appeared to be a tacit admission of culpability.

The DePuy ASR recall was prompted by research data showing a failure rate of 1 in 8 devices – considerably higher than with traditional implants. Some medical experts have estimated the failure rate to be even higher – perhaps as high as 30% over the course of six years (versus the ten years of life expected from traditional hip implants). By the time the  recall was conducted, around 90,000 patients had been implanted with the system worldwide.

FDA’s approval process implicated in DePuy ASR lawsuits

The FDA’s 510k ‘fast-track’ approval process has been cited in multiple lawsuits. The  process allowed a number of metal-on-metal implants – including the ASR DePuy hip replacement – to be granted swift approval due to a substantial similarity to pre-existing devices. DePuy was allowed to bypass clinical trials which might have demonstrated the high risk of early failure.

In the wake of negative publicity surrounding metal-on-metal implants, the FDA issued new guidelines to physicians demanding that the devices only be used when there is no alternative, and that close attention is paid to recipients. Additionally, the FDA has ordered manufacturers to prove the safety and efficacy of existing systems, and to undergo rigorous clinical trials before releasing any new products.

DePuy ASR lawsuits consolidated in NJ

Earlier this year, more than 600 DePuy ASR lawsuits were consolidated into a multi-county litigation (MCL). The proceedings are being overseen by Judge Brian R. Martinotti in the Superior Court of New Jersey for Bergen County. The first bellwether trial, designed to identify jury decisions and other potential outcomes of the MCL, is scheduled to begin October 21.

The MDL in Ohio is scheduled to hear its first bellwether trial on September 9. The only predictors for both sets of proceedings are the first two DePuy lawsuits heard in state courts. In one, the plaintiff was awarded an $8.3 million jury verdict, but the other case resulted in a defense victory for DePuy. 

To read more, please refer to:

http://injurylawyer-news.com/2013/08/two-medical-monitoring-cases-dropped-favor-personal-injury-depuy-asr-lawsuits/