The Process Used For Settlement of A Personal Injury Claim

Anyone that has been injured in an accident has the right to submit a personal injury claim. By submitting such a claim, the injured victim charges another party with negligence. The other party can pay compensation to the victim, or fight the victim’s charge. The legal fight continues until a settlement has been reached.

What are the principle features of a settlement?

Once the disputing parties reach an agreement, their dispute has been resolved. The settlement serves as proof of that resolution. The settlement’s terms dictate the amount of money to be given to the victim/plaintiff, as compensation for the accident-caused injuries. A dispute can be settled before or after the initiation of a lawsuit.

Unlike a court ruling, a settlement’s terms cannot be contested. If one side feels that the terms are unfair, then the same side cannot submit an appeal, so that a second trial gets held.

What factors determine the amount of time required for 2 disputing parties to reach a settlement?

• The nature and quantity of the facts that have been acknowledged by both parties.
• The strength of the evidence presented by both the plaintiff and the defendant.

The types of settlements

One where the victim/plaintiff receives a lump sum, as compensation for the injuries suffered. A structured arrangement: The payments get delivered to the plaintiff on a regular basis, and over a designated span of time.

What steps can lead to the settling of a dispute?

Negotiations: The 2 sides share their views of what took place. The victim’s personal injury lawyer in Lincoln and Santa Paula speaks with representatives from the insurance company. Together, those 2 negotiating parties decide how much money the injured victim should get from the defendant, the negligent party.

Mediation: The 2 disputing parties select an impartial 3rd party. That third-party acts as a mediator. The mediator listens to the claims made by each side, regarding the injury-causing accident. The mediator then tries to get each side to see the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments that have been made by both sides.

Ideally, the mediator gets the disputing parties to reach some sort of agreement. The 2 parties agree to follow the terms of the agreement, the one that has been put together under the eyes of the mediator.

Any accident victim has the option of bypassing either of the steps that were listed above. In such cases the 2 sides settle before initiation of a lawsuit. That usually means that the victim/plaintiff accepts the terms offered by the defendant’s insurance company. That is a risky way to attempt a resolution, because it could force the victim to accept the insurance company’s terms before he or she has attained to a full recovery.