Hi, I’m Roger Ghai and I wanted to talk today a little bit about car accident cases in the process if you are involved in a car accident case. The first stage of the case really is when we notify the insurance company that is the other driver’s insurance company that you represent you on the case and for legal reasons we will notify your insurance company also that you’ve been involved in a car accident case.
The second stage of the case really is where you’re treating with the medical doctor or the chiropractor or whatever provider that you’re seeing. During that stage of the case, nothing is happening except for the fact that you’re treating with your doctor. We can not settle your case during that time. The third stage of the case is when you’ve completed all of your medical treatment and now we’ve already have all of your medical records and we can prepare for the insurance company what is known as a demand package.
If we are not able to settle the case with the other driver’s insurance company then we’ll have no option but to file a lawsuit. As you might imagine that’s a very lengthy and time-consuming process whenever you’re involved in litigation. After the lawsuit as filed the defendant has under Georgia law 30 days to file an answer. After that, there’s another six months of what we call discovery in Georgia and then after that, we can finally ask the court for trial on your case. That may take more than a year. After all, is said and done if we have to litigate the case you may be looking timewise at about another year or year and a half.
If you have any questions about handling automobile cases in Georgia or in the litigation process, please call me at 770-792-1000.