The worst time to settle an accident suit is right after the accident occurs. All parties are shocked and in a state of confusion, impairing their judgment. For this reason, an accident victim should never sign or record a statement for any insurance company, either his own or the other party’s. Police and medical records should be completed and memorialized, since they will become part of the evidence presented should the case come to trial.

Although most accident cases are settled out of court, a certain percentage of them do go to trial, either a bench trial where a judge makes the decisions or a jury trial, where six, eight or twelve people will decide the merits of the case. Either way, you need to be represented by an experienced trial lawyer.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2007 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Oregon Accident Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.