While many ALSPs have understood the processes of a Personal Injury Life Cycle well, but not many organizations can assist you with end-to-end solutions that can reduce the workload for all your departments. TLB has teams that can provide support to you at every stage. Broadly the following are the stages of a PI Lifecycle where TLB can uniquely assist your law firm:
Case Intake:
TLB’s team can screen clients to determine if they have a case, and if so, can determine the model of case management most appropriate to meet a client’s needs, and can assess the client’s willingness and readiness to engage with the law firm’s services. They can complete the following tasks for you, Case File creation, Mailing Client Package for acceptance and obtaining authorizations, Requesting of medical records, Making payments to medical providers for records wherever necessary, Scanning the medical records received through mail and fax, Medical records collation, summary and analysis, Preparation of Settlement letter / Demand Package and Settlement effort. This service is not limiting again to a specific are of practice.
Reviewing Medical Treatment, Costs and Damages (Making Summarization):
The attorney will require the client to sign a number of authorizations when she first retains his services, including medical record, wage verification and income tax authorizations. The attorney needs these items so he can collect evidence from third parties and evaluate medical bills, any lost wage information, and property damage, if any, related to the personal injury claim. TLB can finalize these documents and chase the relevant authorities for the documents. Simultaneously, they can prepare medical summaries and privilege logs too.
Evaluation of the Claim:
Once all the documents are collected and reviewed, TLB’s lawyers can begin to assess personal injury case value and negotiate a settlement more accurately. If everyone finds the offer satisfactory, the personal injury case settles, although cases rarely settle at this early stage. In most circumstances, the attorney will have to file a lawsuit before the insurance company is willing to talk serious about a reasonable settlement.
Settlement of a Claim (Writing Demand Letters):
This is one of the most crucial stages and writing a demand letter that strongly puts forth your arguments is an art that comes with experience. The lawyers at TLB can write convincing demand letters for motor vehicle accident cases, motorcycle and pedestrian accidents, wrongful death, medical malpractice, workers’ compensation and for social security disability cases. When a claim settles, waivers are signed. The client receives her money after her attorney receives his fee and gets reimbursed for any filing or processing fees that he advanced on her behalf. These documents can also be made ready well ahead of time, which TLB’s team does.
Filing of the Lawsuit:
Claims that do not settle needs, typically, goes into a lawsuit in the county where the injury occurred. Each state has its own statutes of limitations-laws that limit the time during which one can file a lawsuit. There are also special limitations that apply to certain types of personal injury cases, such as claims against the government. TLB team can evaluate the legal position of your cases by doing a thorough research on them. At this stage TLB’s team can help you with drafting complaints and motions.
Discovery Stage:
Both parties are granted the opportunity to investigate regarding the facts of the case. The investigation process is called discovery and both parties can ask written questions of the other party or obtain oral testimony from the other party or a third party. TLB can assist you with preparing of interrogatories and deposition summaries that can be done overnight. The team focuses on those aspects that can really make a difference to the case by using his years of experience to a build a strong case.
Pre-Trial and Trial:
In a pre-trial, the judge will meet with both parties and review the evidence that will be presented. When all else fails, and the parties cannot reach a settlement, the personal injury case goes to trial. Getting a court date can sometimes be a challenge due to overcrowded dockets. In many jurisdictions, you may not proceed to trial for two to five years. The trial process is time consuming and expensive. TLB can substantially bring down your time at these stage by drafting all the relevant documents related to pre-trial and trial stages.
Appeal:
If either side is unhappy with the verdict, they may petition the court for leave to file an appeal with the Court of Appeals. This is a long, expensive and arduous process and very few decisions are over-turned by the appeals court. The petition letters are drafted by our senior lawyers for you, so your case is stronger than the other party.
