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A conflict arises whenever one person has alleged that another individual was responsible for an injury-causing accident. Such conflicts can be resolved in more than one way. Some paths to a resolution allow the disputing parties to stay outside of a courtroom; some of them take the same individuals into a courtroom.
Meditation
This is one method that can be used in situations where a personal injury case needs to be resolved. The outcome from a mediation session does not bind the participants to the terms of that outcome. Still, the participants normally agree to follow those same terms.
During the mediation session, a trained mediator facilitates a discussion. After discussing their views, both with and without the mediator’s presence, the 2 disputing sides usually come to some type of agreement.
Arbitration
Like mediation, this takes place outside of a courtroom. The disputing parties present their case before a group of judges, normally a group of 3 individuals. After hearing those presentations, that group of 3 determines the opinion of the majority. That majority opinion shapes the ruling that binds each party to performance of the group’s requested action.
Litigation
That is the legal name for an effort to resolve a dispute by holding a trial. During the trial, 2 lawyers, one selected by each of the 2 disputing sides, argue their view of the case before a jury. Their arguments get heard twice, once at the start of the trial and once at the end, following the questioning of witnesses.
The litigation process proceeds over a longer period of time than either mediation or arbitration. In addition, it forces the participants to pay a larger amount of money. Still, litigation delivers other benefits. A jury makes the final decision, after hearing all of the witnesses’ testimony, along with the attorney’s statements. Yet each side has the right to seek an appeal hearing, following issuance of the jury’s verdict. The judicial system has granted that right, because no one can predict what a jury might decide.
Sometimes, juries choose to award the plaintiff in a personal injury case an extremely large amount of money. Insurance companies fear the realization of that possibility. That is the main reason that insurance companies try hard to settle with a claimant, before that same claimant has initiated a lawsuit.
Personal Injury Lawyers in Barrie understand that the judge does not insist on prolonging a trial, so that those in the courtroom can hear the jury’s verdict. Judges do not hesitate to interrupt the process inside of the courtroom, if that same interruption aids accomplishment of the desired goal. What is that goal? It is willingness by the 2 sides to reach an agreement, and to resolve their dispute.