What do you do after a complaint is filed against me in a car wreck case?

In this video attorney Curt Runger details what you should do if you receive a complaint against you after an automobile accident. View the video below or see the transcript to hear Curt’s guidance to this personal injury stressful time.

Transcript:
My name is Curt Runger and I’m an attorney in Memphis, Tennessee and I help my clients recover their medical bills, lost wages and recover for pain and suffering, when they’re injured in car or trucking accident cases. So a lot of people who come to my office for assistance. I’ve never had to deal with an attorney before they’ve never had to file a lawsuit before, and they want to know what happens after the lawsuit is filed, what does the process look like. So typically what happens is after a complaint is filed in order to recover for your medical bills, the insurance company will hire an attorney to defend the case at that point in time, we engage in what’s called the discovery phase with the defendants attorney. And essentially what that entails is the defendants attorney will send us what’s called a written discovery, and those are questions that have to be answered by you, under oath. So, when you answer the questions that have to be notarized you’re swearing that the answers that are the answers to the questions aren’t true to the best of your knowledge and belief, but the questions are essentially questions designed to get information from you about your case so questions about what happened in the wreck questions about your medical treatment that you received questions about your medical bills and your claim for lost wages if you have questions about the doctors who treated you basically every single thing related to your case is going to be included in these written discovery requests. Now, as your attorney we actually issue the same sort of written discovery to the defendant so we want to know about everything about the defendant. We want to know where they were going. We want to know about their driving record we want to know if they’ve been involved in litigation before, and so on and so forth. After the written discovery phase is concluded, typically what happens is the parties enter into the discovery phase where depositions are taken and so a deposition is basically where the defense attorney gets you their office and there’s a court reporter there and they basically get to ask you all sorts of questions about your plan for personal injuries, so it’s part of the court proceeding, it is not in front of the judge. But the attorneys have a great deal of latitude to ask you questions about your medical bills, your treatment, and so on and so forth and we do the same thing with the defendants, and then, you know, also, you know, your doctors are going to end up being deposed so we will ask your doctors about the type of treatment that you received from them. The amount of the medical bills whether or not the bills and expenses were related to the car wreck, and so on and so forth. So the parties to a car wreck litigation you know they go through this entire discovery phase which sometimes can take up to a couple of years but eventually when the discovery phase is finished, then it becomes time to set the matter for a trial. And that’s when we actually have the trial and present your case to the jury and then, of course, we’ll come back and determine whether or not they believe you’re entitled to recover for your medical bills and your pain and suffering and if so, how much, so that is in a nutshell, what happens after a complaint for damages is filed on your behalf to recover for your injuries in car wreck cases if you have any questions about your potential case, please give me a call.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to call Curt or his team at Douglass & Runger, PLLC at (901) 388-5805 relating to other questions you may have about the automobile accident process.

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For more information about our firm and our approach to the practice of elder law, contact our office. Call (901) 388-5805 to schedule a confidential consultation and case review today. Douglass & Runger, Attorneys at Law, serve clients throughout Memphis, Shelby County, and the surrounding areas.