How Much Does A Trial Cost?
Michael Babboni
Personal Injury
If you get involved in an accident that has long term, negative consequences on you and your lifestyle, you’ll probably want to engage the services of a personal injury lawyer in St. Petersburg. If your injuries are the result of someone else’s negligence or even malice, then it’s important to make sure that the other party doesn’t get it away with it, and gets the right message that negligence should not go unpunished.However, getting justice in a personal injury case, while important, is also not free. At every branch of the judicial process there is money required. Clerks at the court are working on salaries, as are the judges that preside over a case. And of course, the accident lawyer that’s working with you through this experience is usually not doing the work absolutely free and will eventually be paid for the services rendered.
So how does it work? What kind of money is involved in a trial, and how does this affect you and your financial situation? Let’s take a quick, broad look at how money moves around during the trial process.
The Lawyer Wins When You Do
Most personal injury lawyers work on a “no win, no fee” principle. It’s a simple enough concept. If you believe you have a personal injury case, you take this to a lawyer and explain your situation. The lawyer will then assess the situation and decide whether or not you are right. If the lawyer decides that you do have a valid case, then there is no payment from you up front. Instead, the lawyer will take the fees required for the service performed directly from the suit that is awarded to you when you win the case, or the settlement that may be reached before a case ever goes to court, or, in some cases, during the case when the party being sued decides to settle when it’s clear a verdict in your favor will be reached.
In other words, once a lawyer decides to represent you in a personal injury case, you don’t have to worry about whether you have the money on hand to pay the lawyer over the weeks—or even months—that it may take to get a resolution in the case. The lawyer will take a percentage of the final amount that is paid out, meaning that a case may award the lawyer with several thousand dollars, or over a million, depending on the final amounts that are at stake.
But it’s not just the lawyer and the courts that require money in order to ensure a case gets resolved. There are other additional expenses that may be required as well.
Expert Testimony
A civil lawsuit, just like a criminal case, isn’t decided by a single judge, but instead requires the consensus of a jury that is picked out to view the trial and eventually reach a verdict based on arguments and evidence presented. One of the most valuable pieces of evidence that can be submitted is the expert testimony, such as a doctor explaining a medical condition, or an engineer going over the nuances of a product failure, and how that failure and subsequent injury could have easily been avoided if people were doing their job.
But these expert witnesses, and their testimony, while valuable, aren’t free. Usually there is some kind of fee involved for taking the time of a credible expert and having them attend a trial to explain a concept or make a statement in order to inform and educate a jury.
Trial Exhibits
In the same way that expert witnesses are essential for educating a jury, an exhibit can also be a valuable tool. In the past, most exhibits to demonstrate an idea or a point where confined to illustrations, diagrams, or occasionally models in order to clearly show off a concept to a jury in a way that was easy to understand.
Today, trial exhibits may use these methods, but can also go as far as to present short, computer generated animation that clearly marks out points of impact, how injuries are sustained and a host of other important factors. Many experts are required to put together these custom trial exhibits.
Investigators
When it comes to digging up the facts, sometimes the old methods are the best methods, and an investigator often proves very useful. For example, some personal injury lawsuits have actually been negated entirely because a person claiming to be injured was then put under surveillance and found to be exercising regularly, with no injury in sight.
A professional investigator can follow people relevant to case, retrieve information, and provide valuable data that can reinforce the chances of winning. There’s no substitute for a thorough, detailed investigation. These and other costs all contribute to just how much money may be required to carry through a personal injury trial.