When people meet with their Atlanta personal injury attorneys, they want to know their lawyer will fight for them. When someone hurts you, the first thing you want is justice. The second thing you want is compensation for your injuries. You don’t care how long it takes, you just want to get as much money as possible. What you don’t realize is that it can take years to get to court. This is why most personal injury attorneys in Atlanta recommend that you settle your case. More than 90% of all personal injury cases do actually settle out of court. Nobody wants to go to trial. Trials are expensive and time-consuming. Plus, if you go to trial, there’s always the chance that you’ll lose.
If you’ve been injured in any sort of accident, you should call an experienced personal injury lawyer in Atlanta. They can review your case and give you an idea of what it may be worth. They can also give you a breakdown of how your case will proceed.
If You Go to Court, You Might Lose
When someone’s hurt in an accident, they can’t imagine why anyone would deny them compensation. All they know is that they’re hurt and it’s someone else’s fault. What they don’t realize is that, in order to get any money, they need to prove their case.
Your Atlanta personal injury lawyer understands this. They’ve handled dozens (or hundreds) of cases like yours over the years. They know what a trial involves. They also know that there’s always the chance that a jury will find in the defendant’s favor.
If you go to court and lose, your attorney is not going to want to appeal your case. Very rarely does a plaintiff in a personal injury case file an appeal. Unless the judge did something egregious, it’s usually pointless. Most appeals in civil court are filed by defendants, not plaintiffs.
The Judge May Believe That You Were Partially at Fault
If you choose to go to trial, things may not go your way. The jury may feel that you caused the accident. Or, they’ll find that you were partially at fault. If this happens, your damages are going to be reduced by your percentage of fault.
Georgia has something called comparative fault. This means that, if you’re partially at fault, your judgment will be reduced. You can still recover damages. However, you can’t recover as much as you may want.
The defendant’s lawyer knows this. So does yours. Your Atlanta personal injury attorney needs to keep this in mind when negotiating your settlement. This is why most cases settle for less than the full amount of damages. This makes sense. If the defendant is going to pay your full demand, they might as well take their chances in court.
It Can Take Years Before Your Trial
Another reason so many personal injury cases in Georgia settle is timing. It can take years for your case to actually go to trial. Part of this is due to the case backlog in the court system. But it’s also because the defendant may purposely drag it out.
Both sides will be filing motions throughout the legal process. These motions take time. In fact, a single motion can delay your case by two or three months. By the time your case actually gets in front of a judge, it could be a year or longer.
The longer it takes to go to trial, the longer you wait for your money. Even if you do win, it could be another few years before you see a dime. A judgment is only as good as the paper it’s written on if the defendant has no assets.
Call an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer in Atlanta
If you’ve been hurt in any sort of accident, you should call a skilled personal injury lawyer in Atlanta. They can review your case and let you know what it may be worth. They can also explain the settlement process for you.
Call Ted A. Greve & Associates today and schedule your initial consultation. It’s absolutely free and you pay nothing until you settle your case. The defendant will have lawyers working for them and you should too.
