Steps Before a Boca Raton Car Accident Trial

One of the most important steps before filing a Boca Raton car accident claim is recognizing any permanent injuries from the accident. The plaintiff must have an injury or an aggravation to a pre-existing injury that is permanent. That is going to be the basic prerequisite for a lawsuit, and for pain and suffering damages. Later regarding evidence issues involving photographs and medical opinions, an individual will need to take a lot of steps before filing a lawsuit with a distinguished car accident attorney. Some cases, depending on the findings by the doctor are more egregious than others.

Steps to Take Before Trial

When preparing evidence for court for a car accident case in Boca Raton, a person and their attorney will have moved their case from an accident now to trial. Typically the evidence is going to be presented at trial. There are certain circumstances when a judge may entertain evidence prior to trial, such as if a DUI is involved. If there is distracted driving involved, where there is a potential claim for punitive damages.

The judge will hear evidence as to whether or not the complaint should be allowed to be amended to bring in punitive damages, which are damages that are done to punish the at-fault driver. Generally speaking, that is a minute portion of cases and it typically involves egregious drunk driving or impaired drivers.

Other than that, any time evidence is going to be presented in court it will be at trial and through the litigation process. All the evidence that the plaintiff’s attorney, on behalf of the injured client, is going to present is known to the defense and it is presented in court in a professional matter. Experts may be needed at this point. To get it admitted into evidence so the jury can consider it from there, it can get exponentially more difficult to get experts unless the expert witness is qualified and their opinion is accepted. Their evidence will need to get it to the jury.

Discovery Process

The discovery process starts with interrogatories, which are written questions. The lawyer will send the written questions to the opposing parties’ client, which have to be answered under oath. Further, an attorney will request any documents from them, including medical records, tax returns, photographs, estimates, or whatever they decide that they might need to build their case.

This process continues to the depositions stage. An attorney may depose the driver, witnesses, the plaintiff, and similar individuals. Out of these depositions, other evidence may come up, which will be crucial to utilize when building a case for a Boca Raton car accident.

What to Do with Pending Lawsuits

If a lawsuit is pending actually after going through the discovery process, the individual will go to mediation. This is one of the required steps before a Boca Raton car accident trial is required in Florida before actually trying the case. Mediation is forced negotiations to see if the case to be settled. There are many times lawsuits settle prior to trial. Sometimes on bigger cases, the insurance company before they write a check for $1,000,000, they want to get a subpoena to go and get further access to my client’s medical records to prove to themselves that there is no other reason for these injuries. When in litigation, sometimes lawsuits are settled at mediation or sometimes the case is settled during the trial. Negotiations sometimes happen when the jury is delivering. and can continue after the case is filed.

Hiring a Lawyer

An experienced local attorney can guide you through the steps before a Boca Raton car accident trial. It is important that the negligent party takes responsibility for their actions or lack thereof. A lawyer from Kogan & DiSalvo can help you seek damages for any injuries or harm you may have sustained from a car accident.