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Were you or a loved one severely hurt due to another’s negligence? Check out these 3 personal injury tips, then call our Utah attorneys today.
1. Steps in a Personal Injury Lawsuit
If you’ve been injured in a personal injury case in the state of Utah and the insurance company isn’t treating you fairly, it’s required for you to file a lawsuit and take the matter towards trial or to trial. There are several steps in that process. To start the lawsuit, there’s a complaint that’s filed. Then the other side files an answer. After that, there’s a period of time called discovery, which lasts several months. This includes figuring out what happened in the case. That’s done by written questions to the other side, taking depositions, and doing informal investigations. Everybody’s trying to figure out what happened, why it happened, and who’s to blame for it.
There’s a period of time where they have expert discovery. The experts take the information that was learned and say how they view it, and why they think somebody’s at fault or not at fault. The medical experts are saying why they believe an injury is related or not related to the accident. You’re going to have some period of time for that. Then you’re going to have a period of time to file motions and to do all the final pretrial workup, and then you actually have the trial.
If it gets that far, you need to have somebody who’s prepared to go to trial, who’s prepared from the minute the complaint’s filed, to take that case all the way through to trial.
2. Dealing with Insurance Companies
I’m often asked, “Is it a good idea to give a recorded statement to an insurance company?” My answer to that is it’s not a good idea. Insurance adjusters are trained to ask questions in a specific way to get the information they need to help their case, which means hurting your case. Their entire goal is to reduce the amount of damages they pay out. I would recommend that you not speak to an insurance company or give them a recorded statement until you’ve talked to an attorney.
3. Taking the First Settlement Offer
When negotiating with an insurance provider in Utah, we never recommend taking the first offer. In fact, unless the insurance adjuster is offering one-hundred percent of the insurance policy, we have never had a situation where an insurance adjuster is unwilling to give more money above and beyond their first offer. We do not recommend that if an insurance adjuster offers some amount of money, that that is an offer that you should take. It’s our experience that there is typically more money to offer, more room to negotiate with, and we can help you through that process.
Were you or a loved one seriously injured in an accident and have questions about our 3 personal injury tips?
Contact our dedicated Utah personal injury attorneys at Swenson & Shelley today for a free confidential consultation.
Let our experience work for you.
