If the 2 opposing sides fail to negotiate a settlement, the accident victim with a personal injury claim has 2 options. He or she could just drop the claim, and deal with the accident-caused losses. Alternatively, he or she could file a lawsuit, in an effort to force the payment of compensation.
How could such a claimant benefit from pursuing a lawsuit?
The claimant’s chances for receiving a valuable award might have increased. If the lawyer had collected plenty of evidence, and stood ready to present a strong case, then the jury might feel that the plaintiff did deserve a generous amount of money.
The claimant’s out-of-pocket expenses might turn out to be no more than the money awarded by the jury as compensation. That would be an obvious benefit.
What risks do claimants have to accept, if their plans call for the pursuit of a personal injury lawsuit?
Because it is possible that a jury might decide in favor of a large award, that fact indicates that juries would also have the right to favor a small reward. In fact, that reward might even be smaller than the adjuster’s initial offer.
For that reason, smart claimants do not overlook that risk, and do their best to work with their lawyer, in hopes of minimizing that same risk. For instance, that client-lawyer team could work on gathering a large amount of evidence. In that way, it could try to prevent the presentation of a weak case.
While personal injury lawyers in Lethbridge do charge their clients according to the size of the monetary package that has been to them, their fee scale changes, if a client’s case must go to trial. In that situation, the lawyer’s fee would increase from 33 and 1/3 percent to at least 40 %. By the same token, the lawyer’s costs would increase. That would represent a risk for the client, because personal injury lawyers pass their costs on to the clients.
One last drawback to pursuit of a lawsuit
Once a trial has ended, and jury has issued its decision, both sides have the right to seek an appeal. If the defendant did not feel that the jury’s decision had been a fair one, then the defendant’s lawyer could request an appeal hearing.
Now the lawyer might not be granted that hearing, but, by the same token, he or she might be allowed to proceed with the appeal hearing. That would prolong the amount of time that the claimant would have to wait for his or her anticipated award. Furthermore, there is no limit to the number of times that a defendant or plaintiff could request an appeal. So, a case might go undecided for years.