Personal injury cases are legal disputes which arise when an individual suffers harm resulting from an accident or similar incident. This unfortunate event might occur due to another person’s negligence, reckless behavior, or intentional conduct. Under the law, the aggrieved party has a right to take the defendant to court and seek monetary compensation. In the courtroom session, the judge will carefully listen to both parties’ versions of the event. Each of the parties has the right to appoint a qualified attorney of their choice to represent their case. After deliberations, the judge will announce a verdict either in favor of or against the aggrieved party.
David Cates is a trial lawyer from Illinois in America with many years of valuable experience in the legal profession. He is a Juris Doctor awardee from Loyola University, Chicago. He has the honor of working as a trial lawyer in many well-known law firms throughout the state. He specializes in handling complex personal injury litigation cases of national importance such as mass torts and is a specialist in medical malpractice. He even protects the legal rights of families which American companies try to deceive through corporate frauds. Currently, he is in charge of Cates Law Firm and Cates Mahoney, LLC.
He explains, in the above context, that the plaintiff can initiate a personal injury lawsuit in court against the defendant in the following situations:
- Accidents resulting from a slip, fall, or motorcar collision due to the defendant’ carelessness,
- Defamatory or derogatory statements which the defendant issues to ruin the plaintiff’s public reputation,
- Intentional acts by the defendants which causes grievous bodily harm to the plaintiff, such as a battery,
- Medical malpractices where the defendant being a doctor, performs the wrong treatments on the plaintiff, and
- Defective products which the plaintiff unknowingly buys from the defendant which are unreasonably dangerous to him or her,
How do personal injury lawsuits work?
Plaintiffs need to understand that no two personal injury lawsuits for hearings in courts are the same. However, most personal injury lawsuits progress in the following manner once the courts take over the cases:
- The defendant mentally, physically, or financially harms the plaintiff,
- The plaintiff files a personal injury lawsuit with the court and has one month to hire an experienced attorney,
- The court files the plaintiff’s complaint and serves a legal notice on the defendant to appear for a hearing,
- The defendant then hires an experienced attorney to plead his or her version of events in the court,
- In the pre-trial phase known as ‘’the discovery’’, the attorneys of both parties will provide evidence and eye-witness accounts,
- During the trial, the jury will hear the attorneys’ arguments, eye-witnesses’ statements and examine the evidence, and
- After careful consideration of the case, the jury will present its impartial verdict to the judge who pronounces it.
David Cates concludes by saying that plaintiffs should note the law stipulates a time limit within which they file personal injury lawsuits against the defendants in the states in the USA. This is period can range from one to five years, depending upon the nature of the litigation cases. This is known as the Statute of Limitations, and one should be aware of it to successfully file a suit for personal injury claims.