Expenses to Consider When You're Going to Court Over a Personal Injury

If you're one of the many people accused of being at fault for a personal injury, you may be thinking about going to court over it. When considering going to court for a personal injury, you need to know about expenses before proceeding with the filing.

Expenses to Consider When You're Going to Court Over a Personal Injury

Court fees

While those fees can be expensive, they're a tiny portion of the overall expenses to consider. These court fees are related to filing the case in court and taking it over, not during the trial. 

The court will require you to pay for filing and serve all documents to the other party. It is a normal procedure when someone sues another party for an injury caused by them.

The most important thing you should know about court fees is that if your claim is dismissed, you will have automatically waived all those required costs upon filing your case in court due to the State or Federal government. 

If the other party has no legal obligation or duty to pay those costs, they won't pay them either.

Judgment fees

Judgment fees are related to filing the case over in court, so they'll be paid by you when the case is over. You'll have to pay a fee to file your case and serve all documents to the other party. 

It could be a relatively small sum of money, but that's only if you didn't have any additional personal injury expenses from the accident or accident-related injuries. 

If you did have those expenses, spending those funds on filing fees is probably not a good idea.

Mediation costs

You can choose to go to mediation with the other party if you want to settle the issue out of court. There are many benefits to resolving the problem, but it's not free. You'll need to hire a mediator and pay their fees, which could be at least $1,000 plus expenses such as travel costs.

Court reporter fees

If you're filing your case in another state, you'll have to pay for a court reporter if there is any record of the proceedings in court. The law firm representing you may not be aware of how many pages your record will be. 

However, if you know how long the actual hearing will last and how many pages will be needed in the transcript, you can calculate the fee that way.

Attorney fees

Attorney fees for personal injury lawsuits are generally not cheap like other cases, like medical malpractice or contract law cases where the opposing party reimburses attorney fees after trial.

These expenses need to be factored in when you're considering filing a case over a personal injury. If the other party has no obligation to pay any of those fees, you'll have to pay them, so consider that before going forward with your plans and filing a personal injury lawsuit.