Seven Step Personal Injury Process: How it Works
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The Seven-Step Process
Step 1: Initial call. No pressure. No fee. You control.
- You call us at (804) 719-1900 or toll free, (800) 222-4189 to discuss your personal injury case. We answer any questions you might have. We explain the process to you. This call is FREE and costs you nothing.
- We give you a FREE office consultation. We review your case for you. We explain the ins and outs of your case. You owe us nothing for this review. We answer all your questions.
Step 2: You decide to move ahead with us. No fee.
- If you decide you want us to help you, we will discuss our fee (1/3 of any recovery if we settle your case before filing suit. After suit is filed the fee is 40%.)
- Guarantee: We guarantee your satisfaction by offering you a no obligation right to terminate our employment for 60 days. You would owe us no fee if you exercised your guarantee rights.
* You pay NO out-of-pocket money during the course of our representation. We advance all costs.
* All fees are paid out of the settlement of your case – you do not pay us an hourly fee or any other kind of fee until the case settles.
Step 3: Gathering information. We carry the ball.
- We write to the insurance companies and the medical providers and inform them that we are representing you. This means you will no longer receive annoying phone calls from them.
* We gather evidence regarding your case in preparation for submitting your case for settlement. - You continue to have your medical treatment until your doctors release you.
- We call you and keep you informed of the progress of your case.
- We are always happy to receive your phone calls when you have any questions about what is going on in your case.
Step 4: Preparing your demand package for you.
- After you are released by the doctors, we gather all the medical bills and reports.
- When we have the bills and reports, we prepare a preliminary demand letter to the insurance company.
- We contact you and go over the preliminary demand letter to make sure we have not missed any important bills or reports.
Step 5: Your demand is submitted to adjuster.
- We submit the final demand letter to the insurance company. They usually respond with an initial offer in about 6-8 weeks of receipt of our demand.
Step 6: Negotiations begin. You are in control.
- When we receive an offer, we contact you and relay the offer to you. We give you our opinion of the offer and recommend what our response should be. The final say on the settlement is yours. It is your case. You are in control.
- If we agree the offer is poor, we continue negotiating with the insurance company and we relay every offer to you. It is your case and you control the final settlement of your case.
- If we are unable to settle your case to your satisfaction, we will discuss your options, including filing suit. We will discuss our opinion of a jury trial and the expense and time delay involved.
- The length of time it takes to settle your case depends on how long you have to treat with your doctors, how long it takes us to get the bills and records from the providers, how long it take for the insurance company to respond to our demand and how long the negotiating process
takes. If suit has to be filed, about 18 to 24 months are required due to the slow judicial system. - A small case with little treatment can be concluded as quickly as nine months, while a more complicated case can take up to 2-3 years. In any event, suit must be filed in two years in Virginia to prevent the tolling of the Statute of Limitations.
Step 7: Settlement Process. Endorsement & Disbursement.
- Once your case settles, the insurance company sends us the settlement check and the release which you must sign.
- Under our Rules of Ethics, the settlement check must be deposited in our Trust Account for 7 business days before we can draw funds on it.
- When the funds have cleared, we prepare a Settlement Statement showing the disbursement of the funds received and you will get your net proceeds.