No Fault vs. Tort Legal Systems
If you have a personal injury claim, you are going to find that one question that comes up is no fault vs tort.
These are two different personal injury systems and your personal injury lawyer should have an understanding of both. Take a few moments to compare both of these items to understand what they can mean for you. As an aside, if you are in a no-fault system, it may be difficult to hire a personal injury lawyer because this system changes the industry significantly.
You need to understand that when your accident is listed as no fault, it does not mean that when you are in an accident, that no one is to blame for the crash. Instead, this is going to mean that your insurance company is going to handle your damages in this accident. This means that when something does happen, you will get expedited claims as two insurance companies are not fighting over the determination of who is at fault. This means there is no short changing you from the other insurance company and instead, you are able to focus on getting better.
If this was the only factor, then personal injury attorneys wouldn’t be needed for car accidents. Instead, many areas have a tort system in place that is different. When an accident occurs and there is this system, your personal injury attorney will sue the individual who is at fault in the accident. During the trial, the amount of money that this party is required to pay you comes from their final judgment.
What you are going to find is that in this process, there are benefits according to many insurance companies who will try to settle out of court (i.e. largely lower costs to the insurance companies). Depending on the amount of money you end up receiving, this can have its own unique set of pros and cons associated with it.
You will just need to be sure that you consider all the factors that come into play and determine if it is in your best interest to settle or go to trial. This can be a good question to ask personal injury attorneys about as many of them will have a deeper understanding of the law. Just make sure that you do follow the advice of a personal injury lawyer that is well respected in their field and you truly believe has your best interest at heart.