Ask an Attorney - Filing a Lawsuit - What Does it Mean for Me?
I'm Griff Tonkin. I'm one of the partners here at the Arthofer & Tonkin Law Office. This is another video in our series, Ask a Personal Injury Lawyer.
We get a number of questions from our clients, and in this format, we're trying to answer those questions for those of you out there who might wonder these very same things, or might need a personal injury attorney. If you've been injured through the fault of someone else, contact the Arthofer & Tonkin Law Office today. We'd like to consult with you, and our consultations are free, and we can answer a number of questions including this one.
So, some of our clients want to know, when we have to file a lawsuit on their behalf, what does it mean to them? The answer to that question is, well, it depends. In some cases, we'll get it most of the way resolved through informal
negotiation with an adverse insurance company, but we can't quite get the case to an appropriate compensation level for our client, so we need to file a lawsuit. In those instances, when we use the tools of litigation to tell an insurance company to pay their fair share, then it can mean very little for our client.
We do all the legwork, we deal with the insurance company and the lawyers they hire. In other cases, cases with severe injuries or arguments about liability or the causation of injuries, or all three, we'll file a lawsuit, and it may require a great deal of involvement from the client. Those cases that require a great deal of involvement from the client usually have one or more significant disputes in them.
Disputes like I mentioned, whose fault was the accident, it's called liability. Disputes about whether or not the injuries claimed were caused by the accident. Insurance companies and the lawyers who work can fight tooth and nail on this issue of causation.
They'll look to blame severe injuries, even in severe accidents, on almost anything other than the actual accident itself. You need an attorney who will bite you on these liability and causation issues. And then there are cases that are disputed because of valuation.
We know what the appropriate compensation is for our client and how to get it. Sometimes we have to use the litigation process to get an insurance company and their lawyers to see it the way that they ought to. That can require some involvement from the clients.
But the good news is, when you have an excellent team like those here at Arthofer and Tonkin, you're not doing it alone. We work with you hand in hand. We prepare the formalized answers for you.
We only present you with drafts that are largely completed to make sure that we've told your story properly. Ultimately, in a personal injury case, you're like the president and our job is to be the cabinet, to do the work for you, provide you wise advice, and to help you make an excellent decision to make that process as easy and pain-free as possible. If you'd like to work with a team like that, if you'd like to work with the Arthofer & Tonkin Law Offices on your personal injury matter, give us a call today for a free consultation.
