What Happens If Your Illinois Personal Injury Case Goes To Mediation?

In this article, you can discover…

• The role and purpose of mediation in personal injury cases.
• The benefits of mediation over heading to trial.
• The role you’ll play during mediation, and what to expect.

What Does Mediation Mean In A Personal Injury Case?

Mediation is an out-of-court process that is designed to resolve a case. In mediation, you and the other party agree to get together, talk about the case, and work toward trying to get it settled for an agreed-upon dollar amount.

Generally, mediation is overseen by a retired judge, who acts as the mediator. Mediation is usually non-binding, meaning that either party can choose to walk away at any time. Nobody has to agree to a settlement amount; it’s merely an opportunity for both parties to work together to try to settle the case.

Much less common is binding mediation, where you and the other party meet together and agree that the mediator will resolve the case for you if you can not reach an agreement.

How Is Mediation Different From Taking A Personal Injury Case To Trial?

First off, mediation is much less expensive than a trial. At a trial, you must often pay for expert witnesses (such as doctors and engineers), and the fees for hiring these witnesses can be high. It also takes a lot of time and energy on all sides to try a case.

Mediation is an opportunity to avoid that stress, expense, and time commitment. It’s also an opportunity to avoid the risk of trial; if you go to trial as a plaintiff, you may lose and not recover any money, even after all that effort.

But if you can reach a settlement through mediation, this can be good for you as a plaintiff. You’ll know that you’re going to get a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time, and you won’t have to take the chance of having a judge or a jury rule against you. You won’t have to appeal a judge’s decision, either, and have the peace of mind of having your case over with and knowing exactly what you’re getting.

Attorney Alexander Memmen is a seasoned lawyer based in Illinois who has helped countless people just like you navigate the intricacies of personal injury law. Representing clients since 2006, he is prepared to assist you through the process of mediation so that you can move forward and fully recover from your injuries.

Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Sharks At Law today to schedule an initial consultation.

What Role Does A Mediator Play During A Personal Injury Mediation Session?

The mediator will be someone who has a lot of legal experience with the type of case that you’re trying to resolve. Usually, this will be a retired judge.

A mediator acts as a fresh set of eyes who can say to the plaintiff, “Here are the strong parts of your case, and here are the weak parts of your case”. The mediator will then go to the defendant to identify similar strengths and weaknesses in their case and advocate for either the defendant offering more money or the plaintiff being willing to accept less money.

The mediator does this by literally moving back and forth between you and the other party. Usually, they will try to talk to both of you together in the beginning and then talk independently to each party and their respective lawyers. Both parties will sit in different rooms, and the mediator will go back and forth between the two parties, talk to them separately, and make an effort to resolve the case.

How Should I Prepare For Mediation If I Have A Pending Injury Claim?

Before mediation, you should talk to your lawyer about your expectations and goals for mediation and for the settlement amount. It won’t help if you and your attorney have very different ideas about what your case might be worth.

You should also make sure that your attorney has all of your medical bills, medical records, and anything else that they might need for mediation.

Beyond that, little preparation is needed, as you’re really there to have a discussion about what you’re willing to settle your case for. Your lawyer should understand the ins and outs of your case and be able to speak intelligently about the strengths of your case. Your lawyer should also have responses to any possible weaknesses in or objections to your case that might be raised by the mediator.

Attorney Alexander Memmen is a seasoned lawyer based in Illinois who has helped countless people just like you navigate the intricacies of personal injury law. Representing clients since 2006, he is prepared to assist you through the process of mediation so that you can move forward and fully recover from your injuries.

Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Sharks At Law today to schedule an initial consultation.

What Role Does The Client Play During Personal Injury Mediation?

Your role is huge in the sense that you have the ultimate decision as to whether or not to settle your case and what dollar amount will be enough for you to settle.

For the most part, you’ll be speaking to the mediator, and the mediator may have questions for you about your injury and how the injury has affected your life. The negotiation side of mediation will be directed by the mediator and the attorneys, so listen closely to your attorney during that phase of the process.

What Happens If An Agreement Can’t Be Reached In Mediation?

If you and the other party can’t reach an agreement, mediation ends for the time being, but that doesn’t mean your case won’t settle. It’s not uncommon for mediation to require several sessions until a settlement is reached.

For example, let’s assume that you have a case where you and the other party are $100,000 apart in the figure that would allow the case to settle. You feel your case is worth $150,000 while the other party feels it’s worth only $50,000. You can’t agree, the mediator can’t convince you to lower your settlement goal, and can’t convince the other party to raise their settlement offer.

Mediation ends for the time being. But a week later, your attorneys may talk again, and the case settles at that point. It could also be that the mediator keeps working to settle the case even after formal mediation sessions have ended.

Alternatively, if mediation doesn’t work and there’s really nothing else to be done, the case could go to trial. A trial can be an opportunity to get a fresh set of eyes and someone with legal experience to look at your case, speak with your attorneys, and speak with the insurance adjuster. Sometimes, an adjuster simply needs to hear it from a judge that the case has more value than what they’ve been assuming. In other cases, the plaintiff may need to hear from a judge that their expectations are simply too high.

How Does Mediation Compare Emotionally For Clients Versus Going To Trial?

There are certainly clients who want to go to trial and have their day in court. But I often counsel my clients, as hard as it may be, to look at their case as a business decision rather than an emotional battle for justice. Because, in reality, 99% of personal injury cases will not be covered by the media or gain any kind of public traction.

This means that, other than the jury, judge, and lawyers, no one else will hear about your case. What’s more, trials are a truly long and tiring process. It can take days or weeks out of your schedule, and the stress can be considerable. If you can settle your claim out of court, you should see that as a victory for you legally, emotionally, and financially, as well.

Be aware that mediation can also take place at any time in the litigation calendar. In theory, it could also happen before you’ve filed a lawsuit, though that’s not very common. Typically, mediation will happen towards the end of a case, after most of the depositions have taken place and much of the work has already been done.

Still Have Questions? Ready To Get Started?

For more information on Personal Injury Mediation in Illinois, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (312) 210-7229 today.