Basic Outline Of The Litigation (Court) Process
- Many times, especially in small cases, claims can be
resolved without the necessity of filing a lawsuit.
- However, where it is necessary to file a lawsuit, the first
step is the filing of a Complaint against one or more Defendants with the Court
clerk. This begins the Court process, after which each Defendant must be served in order
for the Court to obtain jurisdiction over each Defendant.
- The first order of business as the case gets started is to
identify any other Defendants that should be made parties to the lawsuit and get those
Defendants added in to the lawsuit as soon as possible.
- Written discovery (written questions and requests for
documents) are exchanged between all parties.
- Next, the Plaintiff and representatives of the Defendants
depositions are taken. A deposition is an oral examination by the opposing attorneys which
is taken under oath and recorded by a Court Reporter.
- The typical next step in litigation is to complete all
depositions of the Plaintiff's doctors and any expert witnesses.
- The case should now be fully prepared for trial, a trial
date set, and if the case is not otherwise resolved (by settlement, mediation, or
otherwise) the case goes to trial, usually before a jury.
- A jury trial of the typical injury case takes a week to ten
days, although more complex cases can run several weeks. Any party dissatisfied with the
jury's verdict, who can identify specific errors made at trial that under the law
constitute reversible error, may file an appeal of the judgment entered in the trial
court. The appeal process is started by filing a Notice of Appeal within thirty days of
the conclusion of all matters in the trial court.
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