Process for Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Calgary Injury Lawyer Explains

Video Transcript:

Steve Grover: 

Number one priority is the client. Number two priority is the client. Number three priority is the client, and we have to look at what's the best thing for a client. If we can settle early, great, if not, then we have to go through the litigation process and get the matter moving to trial to get a reasonable settlement.

Tom Mustin: 

If you have a personal injury claim in Alberta, what process can you expect to go through? We're gonna talk to lawyer Steve Grover about that on today's episode of Ask The Lawyer. Steve, thank you for joining us.

Steve Grover: 

Hi, Tom. Nice to see you again. Hopefully you're doing well?

Tom Mustin: 

Everything is great. Good to talk to you as always. So Steve, let's start at the beginning. How does a person even know if they have a valid claim or a personal injury case?

Steve Grover: 

Well, first of all, and if someone is unfortunately injured in an accident, like a car accident, say you're driving your car and you get rear-ended, obviously, you're probably not at fault for the accident because you got... You're the one that got hit from behind. Usually, people are in shock at the accident scene. It may take a day or so for the injuries to come in like headaches, sore neck, shoulder pain. If you have those kind of injuries that come along and headaches, I recommend going to the emergency room or seeing your family doctor. But then from then on, it's always good to consult with legal... A lawyer, a law firm like myself... Ourselves here in Calgary, we specialize in personal injury cases. You can call us, you can get a free consultation in our meeting or via Zoom for one hour, and you can understand what the legal process is. And if you do have a valid claim, we would analyze it with you and say, "Listen, you know, you've got a valid claim or not, or you don't have a valid claim." So that's always a free consultation. It doesn't cost anyone any money out of pocket initially.

Tom Mustin: 

So how does your office discuss legal issues with prospective clients before a lawyer is retained?

Steve Grover: 

I think the best thing for a lawyer is to talk to a person that comes to our office in lay person terms. I mean, we can always talk legalese and Latin words and people won't understand what we're talking about. It's like a doctor, you're going to the doctor you're describing a headache and he starts talking in Latin about medicine. I don't think that's really gonna work. I think the best thing is, the client comes in, you talk to a lawyer like myself at my law firm, we sit down for the hour. We go through the facts of what happened in the case, how the accident occurred and we ask for description what your injuries are, what type of treatment you're doing. And then describe in simple terms of how a case would proceed if you do retain our office and just out of note, we work on a contingency fee, which means we work for free, until we win your case you don't pay us anything. So there's a benefit of hiring a lawyer on a personal injury case, especially when they work on a contingency fee basis, 'cause it's not gonna cost you anything out of pocket initially.

Tom Mustin: 

Now, do lawyers ever try to settle a case before a lawsuit is even filed? And if so, should you file a suit sooner in some cases?

Steve Grover: 

I've been doing this for 22 years and it's all over the board, sometimes if you have a senior adjuster that's gonna take the case seriously and say, make a communication to our offices and say "Hey, Steve. I know this is a good case. We know there's exposure on the defendant. We know we're gonna pay out a certain amount of money for your client." And sometimes it's worth settling directly with the adjuster, but unfortunately over the course of time in my career, I mean, a lot of our cases are in litigation now because you don't file a suit, you file a statement of claim in the courthouse here in Calgary. You put the other insurance company on notice, they get their defense counsel involved and you sort of have to, if you want peace, you prepare for war.

Steve Grover: 

And I think the best way is... You know, we're always open to negotiations. I mean, at the end of the day, I have to look out for the best interest of my client. I don't wanna drag him or her through the legal process, which is a whole new experience for them. But if we have to do that, we have to do that. And obviously our number one priority is the client. Number two priority is the client. Number three priority is the client. And we have to look at what's the best thing for a client. If we can settle early, great. If not, then we have to go through the litigation process and get the matter moving to trial to get a reasonable settlement.

Tom Mustin: 

And Steve, if it's decided that a lawsuit does need to be filed, walk us through the main steps in that litigation.

Steve Grover: 

Well, first of all, there's the initial consultation with my office, there's fact gathering. We open a file. We order initial documentation, like a full police report. We get a pre-court search to confirm who the owner of the vehicle that caused the motorcycle accident or a car accident to confirm ownership. We draft the statement of claim outlining facts not evidence of what happened in this claim, how the crash occurred, what are the injuries our client suffered and what kind of losses we're seeking for, like for pain and suffering, loss of house, kingpin, loss of income. We usually send that to the client for him or her to review, to advise us for any changes or if it's good to go, we go ahead and file the statement of claim. You have two years to file a statement of claim in Alberta from the date of loss. If you don't, then you have no claim at all.

Steve Grover: 

After we file a statement of claim, we have to serve the defendant personally. So just a notice provision that, "Hey, if you're going to get sued, you should put the person or company on notice of the claim." So that has to be served on the defendant or defendants. And then from there, we ask for their defense counsel to get involved and they send a reply, which is called a statement of defense outlining why they don't think they're liable or why our client isn't liable for... Their client is liable to pay our client a bunch of money for pain and suffering, loss of income, et cetera.

Steve Grover: 

From then, we exchange our production in something called the AFIA records here in Alberta. We prepare that documentation for our clients. We send that over to the other side. And in response, the defense lawyer sends their AFIA records or the production that they have regarding their client, like damage estimates, mechanical service records that the defendant may have. Maybe sometimes they downloaded the data from a Crash Data Retrieval unit to show the speed that they hit our client at. And then from there we set up something called questioning, which is depositions. We call it questioning here in Alberta since 2010, because the rules committee in Alberta wanted to make it more lay person friendly, so we just call it questioning. But that's where I sit down with the client. I prepare her or him for what questioning is gonna be all about. Usually, people are very nervous about it because it's their first time in the legal process, but we're here to support them. Myself or my lawyer will be there the whole day.

Steve Grover: 

Usually, what happens is we'll question the defendant to confirm there's no liability issues. And then secondly, my client gets questioned on liability, their injuries, their loss of income, how the injuries have affected their life, if there's a loss of housekeeping and future cost of care they want in the future to maintain their ability to function as they did before the accident. And then usually we try and press it to mediation, but before we go to mediation, we like to get expert reports from certain experts, medical and economist experts to quantify our clients claim. 'Cause at the end of day, I'm a lawyer, I'm not a doctor. I've done a lot of these cases, but I can't go and give evidence, medical evidence or economic evidence of what their losses are. So, we need to shore up those cases by getting expert evidence.

Steve Grover: 

And then we set the matter down with the mediation, which is sort of like an informal settlement process where we have a mediator who's like a referee in a hockey game. They're not there to decide the case, they're just there to be a facilitator bringing both sides together to try to come to some reasonable settlement. And 80%-90% of the cases will settle at mediation here in Alberta, but unfortunately those 10% or 15% that don't, then we have to move the cases down to trial. From there you could be in a two to three week or four-week trial, and from there we decide... We present the case and at the end of the day it's a trial of facts of the judge of what he or she decides on the cases, what worth or if the defendant is liable, then they render a judgment soon after within six months hopefully.

Tom Mustin: 

And Steve, you touched on a key point. This can be really overwhelming for a lot of people. So, how do you make sure that the client stays informed as this process unfolds?

Steve Grover: 

Yeah. Well, in my own life, I take one day at a time. And I think the best way is to give the big picture to the client initially what could happen. We do provide them a flow chart of how a personal injury case is developed at our office, we send to them with a reporting letter after they retain us, which helps them understand the process. But it's sort of like it's a new process for a regular person who's never been in a case. Unfortunately, their life is being turned upside down because of an accident or injuries. So, we try to keep it as simple and stupid as possible. I always believe in the KISS philosophy, like the rock or KISS, Keep It Simple and Stupid.

Steve Grover: 

And I think that it's really important for people to just take one day at a time, we give them the big picture, but then we also break it down, "Hey, we're gonna draft the statement and the claim." And then from there, we're gonna have a defense that's all applied to the statement and the claim. And then we're gonna go to questioning and then we prepare them for questioning and that could be half a day preparation, going through their documents, advising them how it's most important for them to be credible when they're being questioned by the other defense lawyer from the other insurance company. We prepare them what type of questions they may be asked. What kind of good things about their case or what things are the bad things that a defense lawyer may ask them about. Because every case is not flowers, rosy and chocolates all the time.

Steve Grover: 

They're little problems and we just wanna prepare our clients in questioning say, if there's some bad things that come up, we wanna say, "Hey, this is what I would ask if I was the defense lawyer for X insurance company, 'cause I would like to know more about your past medical history. Or why didn't you do more treatment. Is there a reasonable excuse for that. And so you just gotta take one file at a time, one step at a time with your client and try and keep it as simple as possible and keep for the KISS philosophy like Gene Simmons was... He's a brilliant man. He found the KISS and they made a billion dollars, so he's got some formula with him also.

Tom Mustin: 

[chuckle] Well, Steve, a lot of great information as always. Thank you for the KISS theory, we'll keep that in mind as always. But we appreciate you joining us, so thanks for your expertise.

Steve Grover: 

Tom Mustin: 

You too. And that's gonna do it for this episode of Ask The Lawyer. My guest has been Steve Grover. If you wanna ask Steve a question about your situation, call the number on the screen. Thanks for watching, I'm Tom Mustin for Ask The Lawyers.

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