If you are recently injured in an accident due to the conduct of another, you may be heavily considering the idea of commencing a personal injury lawsuit against the potential defendant. However, many people are discouraged by the seeming quagmire that is the California justice system and may elect to avoid the hassle. It is vital to realize that it is important to exercise your rights and to utilize the justice system to your advantage. Once you are acclimated to the civil justice process, you will quickly be on your way to seeking the damages and restitution you deserve.
When you decide to commence your personal injury claim, you will want to meet with an experienced and qualified personal injury attorney who can help you review the merits of your claim. One of the preliminary considerations in any personal injury action is what is known as the “statute of limitations.” This is a statutory time limitation whereby a plaintiff will be prevented from filing a claim against a defendant after a certain amount of time has passed. For most personal injury claims, California allows plaintiffs two years from the date of the injury in which to file a complaint against the defendant.
The first step in filing a personal injury lawsuit is to draft a complaint and summons detailing the nature of your claims against the defendant. For example, if you were injured in a car accident, your complaint will set forth the facts surrounding the incident as well as allegations of negligence or intentional acts by the defendant. Your complaint will contain short and plain statements of law and fact and need not set forth every single fact in your case. However, it must set for enough information to inform the defendant of what is being alleged against him. With the complaint, you will file a summons.
Once you have filed in the courthouse, you must arrange for service of process upon the defendant. Most often, defendants are formally served by the sheriff or an official process server. Once the defendant receives the complaint and summons, he will have 30 days to respond to the complaint or raise certain preliminary defenses to your action. Such defenses could include a lack of jurisdiction, improper service of process or improper venue.
If your complaint survives preliminary motions and jurisdictional challenges, you will be well on your way to the next phase of a personal injury action: discovery. If your case is headed to trial, both parties will be entitled to discover from the opponent any evidence calculated to be material in preparation for the case. Assuming documents are not privileged, nearly any type of evidence can be discoverable. Courts loathe involvement in the discovery process and parties are highly encouraged to work out discovery conflicts between themselves.
From here, your case will either go to trial or will settle beforehand. A settlement occurs when two parties arrive at a mutually satisfactory result after negotiations. For instance, the defendant may agree to pay an amount to the plaintiff in lieu of going to trial. Many factors play into the decision to settle, including strength of the case and likelihood of success with a jury. Should your case go to trial instead, both sides will put forth evidence to the jury and it will render a verdict for one side or the other.
Hopefully the above information succinctly explains that a personal injury lawsuit does not need to be confusing or overwhelming. If you or a loved one were recently injured by the conduct of another, you should exercise your rights to recover damages and restitution for your pain and suffering. The civil justice system is in place to welcome plaintiffs to resolve conflicts with defendants and should be heralded as such.
