Steps involved in the process of your personal injury case

Accidents happen suddenly and in the midst of everyday activities. In a split second, you could be left with serious and even life-threatening injuries. When these occur as the result of someone’s reckless or negligent actions, you may be entitled to compensation through a personal injury claim.

Legal cases pertaining to personal injury lawsuits are considered “civil law” cases. Civil law refers to holding a person responsible for a particular action that resulted in damage or death, usually resulting in compensation for medical bills and to make reparations for anything that was lost or broken due to the accident, such as car repairs, medical bills, funeral expenses, and much more.

At Tuite Law, we provide the legal representation you need in these situations. With over 50 years experience, our Rockford, Illinois personal injury lawyers act as a trusted legal advocate, helping you get the amount you need to recover. The process we take to win your personal injury case is involved and can take a long time to complete start to finish, but knowing what is involved can help you to be better prepared to fight for your rights and hold responsible parties accountable for injuries that they cause. We created this guide to help you understand the process we take when fighting for your rights and what role an individual will play in the process when it comes to filing a lawsuit with the help of our advocacy team.

The following is standard practice for winning a personal injury or wrongful death case and can sometimes seem daunting to anyone involved in an accident. The point is not to overwhelm with the information, but simply demonstrate how we approach each of our cases to ensure the maximum compensation possible.

• Primary court paperwork: Before going to trial or even filing a lawsuit, there are forms and paperwork that lodge complaints and or petitions to oversee the matter as a civil violation. Illinois also now requires e-filing for all documents. So you can’t just walk over to the courthouse and file a claim with the clerk like you used to. Representing yourself is now much harder with efiling so it’s important to have an Rockford, Illinois personal injury attorney who is well versed in the processes to file your claim. If you’ve been hurt you’ve got a very short window to file a claim so it’s important to get representation early.
• Investigating Claims and Fact-Finding: After the claims are filed, we (and likely the accused party’s legal representation) will go on a fact-finding mission to discover all the details of your case, from accident reports, police analysis, and other pertinent information that will help strengthen your claim.
• Negotiating with Party and Insurance Companies: After gathering enough strengthening evidence for your claim, before even filing a lawsuit, we will work to negotiate pleasing terms to avoid the litigation process altogether.
• Filing Lawsuit:If the responsible party is unwilling to admit fault, negotiate terms and settlement, or listen to the petition, we process a lawsuit in your behalf to ensure they are brought to the table for negotiations.
• Motions and Settlement: After a formal lawsuit has been filed, we will continue working with the responsible party to reach a settlement and counter motions they may introduce to prolong the process.
• Trial: After exhausting our other options and our minimum settlement, we will go to trial where the case can be heard in front of a jury or a judge.