Monday, December 7, 2015

What are the interrogatories in a car accident case?

When a car accident escalates to the judicial system it is usually through a civil lawsuit which Chattanooga, TN accident lawyers know all about. This lawsuit basically allows for the person making the complaint (the plaintiff) to receive economic and non-economic compensatory damages for personal injury and\or property damage from the defendant.

There are several stages to a lawsuit from the time it is filed till the case is eventually concluded, the legislation governing personal injury and car accident cases is vast and anybody serious about winning the lawsuit will most certainly require the knowledge and tenaciousness of a Tennessee accident attorney.

It does not matter how many NYPD Blue episodes you have watched. It does not matter if you have Detective Sipowicz’s lines memorized. If you are in this situation you need legal help. The other side is going to have a lawyer who knows exactly how this process is going to go and watching the fantastic show of NYPD Blue is not going to matter much. You can find legal help right here: https://usattorneys.com/. That is correct, Sipowicz did not like computers much but again, that was in the early part of this century and he was married to a lawyer as well.

Interrogatories during the discovery stage of a personal injury lawsuit

One of the stages in the life cycle of a civil car accident lawsuit is known as the discovery. The discovery stage is the initial stage and is only preceded by the actual filing of the lawsuit itself. During this stage, the two opposing des/parties (the plaintiff and the defendant) in the case exchange some information. Basically, the plaintiff and the defendant may ask questions (known technically as interrogatories).

They are in a written format and will need to be answered under oath by the recipient. The questions relate to the accident and the facts of the accident. The recipient of such interrogatories is required to reply within a certain time frame.

For anybody involved in a car accident and looking to either answer or ask interrogatories, the best course of action to take could be to consult a Chattanooga, Tennessee accident lawyer who will know what to say and how to phrase it. Answering these questions by yourself is not a very good idea because anything you write can and will be used against you in a court of law as evidence.


The questions that usually make up an interrogatory

Now that we have established what an interrogatory is, let’s move on to what information is exchanged by the two sides in a typical car accident interrogatory.

Here are some example questions from a standard car accident interrogatory. At this point, it should also be stressed that the answers to these questions are pivotal and need to be well thought out, because if you slip up and write something that will jeopardize your case, then you cannot change your story/argument when the case moves past the discovery stage and enters trial.

Determining what exactly happened

The interrogatory will almost always include a question which requires the recipient to describe the accident and how it happened in as much detail as possible. It may be phrased like “Kindly state in your own words how exactly the accident occurred.”

Other questions will include more factual, objective questions such as details of the make and model of the car, insurance details, previous criminal history, and other related factors.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, interrogatories can be very challenging to answer, and only a Chattanooga accident lawyer can make the whole process a lot easier and hassle free. Press right here if you need one and if you are in this situation you do. 

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