As a business owner, keeping informed about the finer points of employment law is important. If you're getting ready to hire your first employees, you need to be sure that you understand exactly what you can and cannot do. Don't risk getting yourself into legal trouble by asking the wrong question at the interview or making an off-hand comment that's considered legally unacceptable. I created this site to give you the basics of employment law expectations. I hope that the information here helps you to understand what you should and shouldn't do as you're interviewing and hiring your first staff members.
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Employer Fundamentals: Understanding Employment Law
An Overview Of A Personal Injury Lawsuit Timeline
Irene Robertson
When filing a personal injury lawsuit, you should have a rough idea of what to expect so that you don't get surprised when something unexpected happens anytime during the process. Here is a brief overview of a typical injury lawsuit timeline to help prepare you for the process. The typical stages include:
The Discovery Process
In the discovery process, both you and the defendant are given the opportunity to get information relating to the case from each other. The discovery process is meant to ensure that none of you are faced with surprises during the trial. Some of the issues discovery processes include are:
- Backgrounds of the witnesses
- Documents (such as financial and medical documents) relevant to the lawsuit
- The identities of all parties involved in the lawsuit
The discovery process typically lasts for several months; it can be as short as 4 months or as long as 9 months.
Pretrial Motions
Pretrial motions deal with the issues that either or both parties want to be resolved before the trial proper begins. For example, if you want the case to be tried in a particular jurisdiction and you have a legal basis for your claim, you can file a pretrial motion for the same. The more complex your case is, the more likely it is to involve multiple pretrial motions, which may lengthen the overall duration of your case.
The Trial and Verdict
Once the pretrial motions have been dealt with or if they are nonexistent, then you move on to the main trial stage of the lawsuit. This is where a judge or jury listens to the arguments from both sides of the case before delivering judgment. The duration of this stage of the case is unpredictable; it can last for as short as a few months or as long as more than a year. The more money that is at stake, the more time it will take your case to conclude.
The Appeal
In most cases, your case will end with the delivery of the verdict or judgment, and the responsible insurance company will sign your check. However, this isn't always the case because the defendant may file an appeal to have the verdict overturned or to reduce the settlement figure. If that is the case, then you will also have to wait for some months for the appeal case to be concluded to know whether you will be collecting your settlement check, and how much it will be.
Contact a personal injury attorney for more information.
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