- What are the steps in an injury claim?

Hi everybody, I’m Warren Whiteknight I’m an injury lawyer and a partner here at Bergeron Clifford and today on Ask an Injury Lawyer. Today, I’m going to deal with a common question I get from people – What are the phases or steps that an injury claim has to go through?

When someone is first injured the first thing that happens is they talk to a lawyer like me and as that person’s lawyer gets in touch with their insurance company. I tell them they’re going to be making a claim for those injuries the insurance company assigns an adjuster. The adjuster is the person within the insurance company responsible for that file and I start dealing with that adjuster. We share information back and forth.

The first step when you move beyond the adjuster phase is into the court process and that’s called issuing a statement of claim so that’s the beginning of a lawsuit the insurance company hires a lawyer they file a defense. After the defense we go to the first actual step in the court process which is what is called the examination for discovery and that is what in the movies would be called a deposition. That’s when someone my client that’s the injured person or the defendant we’re in the lawsuit with give evidence under oath in the presence of their lawyers and in the presence of a court reporter.

The next step is often either a mediation so an attempted outer court settlement or a pretrial which is in attendance before a judge in a somewhat informal setting. If the matter does not resolve at a pre-trial a trial is scheduled and the matter may proceed to a trial. Although often times there will be many many opportunities at a settlement before you get to a trial. Those are the common phases of an injury law claim and normally from start to finish, the time for that whole process is on an average between two to three years.

Thanks for tuning in today.