One of the biggest questions I’m asked by my clients is am I going to go to court? My answer is in all probability, no.

How a case basically works is we sit and wait until you finish your medical treatment because until your medical treatment is completed we do not know all the facts that we need in terms of valuing your case. Because in order to value a case we need to know the full extent of your injuries, the length of your medical treatment, the type of medical treatment, the type of physicians you’ve seen, and most importantly do you get all better or you’re left with some permanent injury.

Once you’ve completed your treatment we get a final report from your physician and we know the answers to all those questions, we can formulate a demand letter and send that along with all of your medical documents to the insurance company who caused your accident.

At that point we begin the negotiation process. More than half of our cases are settled at that time. What that means is the insurance company has offered an amount of money that I’m willing to recommend and my client is willing to accept a settlement of their claim. My clients then sign what’s called a release which says that they give up their claim for that amount of money. The release is sent to the insurance company, the insurance company sends the money and then it’s split between the client and the lawyer.

If we can’t settle the case because we’re either fighting over who’s at fault or the value of the claim, we then start our lawsuit. But even though we’ve started a lawsuit it doesn’t mean you’re going to go into court. It means that you will have to answer a series of questions known as interrogatories, you will come in, with our preparation, and be asked questions by the other side. It’s called a deposition. And then there will be an attempt to settle the case.

Once again the majority of the cases are settled at that point and only about 10 percent actually walk into the courtroom where your case is either tried by a judge and jury or an arbitration panel. If your case is worth less than $50,000 in Pennsylvania it is tried by an arbitration panel of three lawyers. If it is worth more than $50,000 it’s tried by a judge or a jury.