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What Happens if Your Personal Injury Claim Doesn’t Settle?

What Happens if Your Personal Injury Claim Doesn’t Settle?


The best-case scenario after you have been in an Arizona accident is to have your case settled out-of-court and with you receiving a fair amount of compensation for your damages. The personal injury claim process begins with your Arizona serious injury attorney reviewing your case to determine if it is valid for a claim to be filed. If so, it will result in your attorney going through all the supporting information surrounding your case. This would including studying the police report, talking to witnesses, scrutinizing the accident scene, examining photos, etc. Additionally, your lawyer may want to involve expert witnesses to help with your case or may find it necessary to reconstruct the accident scene.

Once your attorney has a clear picture of how the accident happened and understands the amount of fault the defendant has, and that you have, if any, your lawyer will evaluate your damages. When it’s all said and done, your Phoenix serious injury attorney will discuss with you what a fair settlement for your case is. When you come to an agreement, your attorney will send a letter of demand stating the amount of compensation you are seeking along with a detailed explanation of liability and how that number was calculated. 

Once the insurance company, the defendant, or the defendant’s legal counsel receive the demand letter they will respond. They can do one of three things:

  • Accept the terms 
  • Reject the terms
  • Counter-offer

Should your demands be rejected or countered and the counter doesn’t meet your expectations, you may have to endure a long-term process of back-and-forth litigation to come to an agreement. It may turn out that you simply cannot come to an agreement with the other party or parties, so what happens next?

What Happens When You Can’t Come to an Agreement in Your Arizona Personal Injury Claim?

It happens all the time, two or more parties cannot agree on a settlement. At this point, your personal injury attorney will file a lawsuit on your behalf with the courts and that is where your case will be headed. After this happens, the phase known as “discovery” takes place. All the parties involved will start collecting evidence and examine their perspective closer to see if they have a solid chance at winning. If any party decides that their case isn’t as strong as they thought it would be and don’t want to take the chance of going to court, a settlement outside of court is still possible.

Do You Need Legal Representation in Arizona?

What Happens if Your Personal Injury Claim Doesn't SettleAt any time before your court date arrives a settlement can still take place. Depending on your situation, arbitration may be required. This is an informal way of having all parties cases’ represented to a non-partisan arbiter. The process takes place out of the courts. Of course, while it doesn’t happen most often, your case can be fought out in court. At this point, you are at the mercy of the judge or the jury to decide the outcome which is why it is so vitally important that you have the most experienced, most aggressive, and most resourceful Arizona personal injury lawyer on your side. ELG is the firm that has exactly what you need to fight and win. Call ELG today at (623) 877-3600 to schedule your free consultation.