I am in a car wreck lawsuit. Depositions are happening next week. How long do depositions last?
It depends on many factors. There is no time limit on depositions in state court in Tennessee.
The length of a deposition depends on the complexity of the case, the complexity of the injuries, the medical history of the plaintiff, the personality of the examining lawyer and many other factors.
I was hurt in a Tennessee car wreck. I really don’t want to go to court but the one-year filing deadline for personal injury claims is coming up and I need to file my lawsuit. However, I don’t want to go through the discovery process. How often do cases settle without any discovery?
It is impossible for me to know the answer to that question. Many cases resolve before a lawsuit is filed. Many others are also resolved after a lawsuit is filed but before trial. Unless active negotiations are underway in your case at the time you file suit and you are filing suit solely for the purposes of filing before the deadline but with a goal of getting the case resolved (and the insurance company has the main mindset) it is reasonable to assume that discovery will happen.
Remember, you can settle your case (assuming the insurance company also wants to settle) and avoid litigation, including discovery. If the insurance company wants to settle and you want it to settle, it will settle – just not at the dollar value it should settle. By that I mean that if your case has any merit whatsoever you can almost always settle it for less than the true value of the case.
How much do expert witnesses charge?
It depends on the type of expert. Most experts charge by the hour. I have paid as little as $50 per hour to hire a mechanic to serve as an expert witness. Some neurosurgeons charge $2000 per hour for a video deposition to testify about their care for a patient. I have never heard about anyone charging more than $2000 per hour but I guess it is possible.
I am thinking about filing a personal injury case. What are my responsibilities to my lawyer?
The lawyer / client relationship is a special one and, just like a lawyer has certain obligations to the client, a client must do certain things to assist the lawyer in the representation. We expect the following of our clients:
Filing a lawsuit is a serious endeavor and you should not take it lightly. While a lawyer will do the vast, vast majority of the work on your case, there are certain things only you can do and other things that the lawyer (and the legal system) have a right to expect of you.
I was beat-up by a guy and incurred $10,000 in medical bills and missed two weeks from work. I want to sue him but I cannot find a lawyer to help me. They all want to know if the guy that beat me up has any money and when I tell them I don’t think so the lawyers lose interest. How can I get money out of this guy?
You are probably trying to hire a lawyer on a contingent fee. If a contingent-fee lawyer thinks a case is weak or that any damages won are not going to be collected he or she will not take the case because, like everyone else, lawyers like to get paid for their work.
You have two options. You can hire a lawyer by the hour to sue the guy that hurt you. Or, you can find a new lawyer (one recently out of school) who would be more likely to take a case where he or she is not likely to get paid. You may have to front the filing fee and other out-of-pocket expenses.
I just had a trial in my case and I lost – the jury ruled against me. The jury was wrong and I want to appeal all the way to the United States Supreme Court. I can, right?
If a plaintiff or a defendant has a complaint about the way the trial was conducted or the end result of the trial or the judge’s ruling on post-trial motions, he or she can appeal. In Tennessee, the first appeal is to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals does not hear from witnesses. Rather, it looks at the transcript of the testimony given in the trial court, reviews the exhibits, and determines whether there were any errors than mandate a different result than reached in the trial court. The Court of Appeals can affirm the result reached in the trial court, order a new trial, and sometimes it can outright dismiss a case won by a plaintiff in the trial court. It is extremely difficult to convince an appellate court to reverse a jury verdict by arguing only that they jury made the wrong decision. In Tennessee, the appellate court will reach the same result as the jury if there is any material evidence supporting what the jury did. The appellate court will not re-weigh the evidence – it just looks to see if there is any material evidence that supports the verdict. If asked, the appellate court will also look at alleged errors of law.
I was in a car wreck case. My lawyer says that I should settle and I don’t want to – I think I should get more money. What should I do?
First, lawyers can’t give legal advice to a person already represented by another lawyer. Therefore, neither I nor any responsible lawyer can give you that kind of advice without getting your lawyer’s written permission to speak with you and without knowing a lot more information.
Second, I assume that you did adequate research before you hired the lawyer you have and considered the type of factors contained in our Legal Guide, "Understanding How to Hire a Lawyer in a Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases." Thus, you obviously had trust in this lawyer’s ability and judgment when you hired him or her. Therefore, you have an obligation to listen to and carefully consider your lawyer’s advice. You are not required to take the lawyer’s advice, but you should listen carefully to the advice and the potential impact to your case if you do not take the advice.
I was hurt in a car wreck and have filed a lawsuit. I am scared to death about going to trial. Will there be a trial or will my case be settled?
Now days, most cases do not go to trial.
These statistics will give you an idea of how many cases are actually tried. In the one-year period ending June 30, 2009, there were about 11,000 lawsuits filed involving all types of personal injury and wrongful death in the state of Tennessee. (Many other cases were settled before a lawsuit was even filed; those numbers are not publicly available.) However, there were only 260 jury trials and 348 non-jury trials in personal injury and wrongful death cases during that same period. These statistics are about the same from year to year, and thus it is fair to say that only about 5% percent of personal injury and wrongful death cases in which lawsuits are filed actually go to trial.
I am a doctor. I have been sued in a medical malpractice case. My patient has asked for payment of her lawyer’s fees? Am I responsible for her lawyer bills?
Under current law you are not liable for the fees of her lawyer absent extremely unusual circumstances, even if you lose the lawsuit. Similarly, if she loses the lawsuit she is not liable for your lawyer fees.
The only risk you have of paying your adversary’s fees in a medical malpractice case is if you assert a frivolous defense or do not participate in the discovery process in good faith. The discovery process is the phase of the litigation during which each side finds out about the other side’s claims and defenses. The various methods of gaining this information are often referred to as tools of discovery or simply “Discovery.” These methods include depositions, interrogatories, requests for production, medical evaluations, requests for admissions, and subpoenas. Read more here.
I have a jury trial in state court in Nashville in a couple weeks in my car wreck case. Do I have to pay the other side’s attorney’s fees or other costs if the jury rules against me?
Ordinarily, a person who loses a jury trial in personal injury or wrongful death case in state court in Tennessee does not have to pay the winning party’s attorney’s fees. However, the losing party may have to pay certain costs incurred by the winning party, such as costs for expert witnesses to give depositions and appear at trial, costs charged court reporters, etc. These costs are known as "discretionary costs" because a trial judge has the discretion to order that the loser pay some or all of certain costs incurred by loser. Your lawyer should be able to estimate what those costs would be.
The only time you would have to pay the winning party’s attorney’s fees after a loss in a personal injury or wrongful death case is if the trial judge determined that your lawsuit was "frivolous." The mere fact that a case is lost does not mean it is frivolous. You should ask your lawyer whether there is any risk that your case could be determined frivolous by the trial judge, but my experience is that it would be very uncommon for a judge to declare that a car wreck claim or defense was "frivolous." The only exceptions I can think would arise in situations where it was determined that a person faked (not just exaggerated, but truly faked) an injury, encouraged or paid others to give patently false testimony in support of the case, and other situations that are extremely rare.
Tennessee Injury Law Center