My name is Johnny Pineyro of Pineyro & Fernandez, PA. And today we're going to talk a little bit about what we do once we accept a client at our office.
The first step for us to do is to find out who is responsible and make sure that they are placed on notice. And what that means is we send letters out by certified mail to make sure that the individuals or entities responsible for the accident become aware that they are a target. Once they are aware, we can begin, hopefully, meaningful dialogue between our office, our clients, the insurance companies, or directly with the at-fault parties.
There's a misconception in these cases that lawyers will just file a law suit without giving an opportunity to get the case resolved outside of court. And, although, some law firms do take that approach, at our firm we attempt to amicably resolve the matter-disagreement as quickly as we can without litigation. Litigation, which we'll discuss later, takes a lot of time and money. A lot of clients by the end of litigation are far worse off than they would have been prior to any litigation being commenced. So, we try to do what we can to resolve all disputes without litigation.
This pre-litigation stage requires us to send out documents and begin dialogue with the insurance companies or with the individuals or entities that caused the accident in the first place. This process, typically, can last up to a year. However, some cases do resolve sooner than that. If the injuries are clear and the cause of the accident is clear, it's not unusual for cases to resolve in less than 30 days.
Once we feel that the pre-litigation phase will not resolve the case, either because the other side is denying responsibility or the injuries exceed what the coverage is and they still don't want to pay the amount of money they have, we consult with our clients and get from them permission to file a law suit. That beings the litigation phase of these cases.
Whether it's an automobile accident, a slip-and-fall injury, or some product defect that caused the injuries, the process is generally the same. There are, also, very important statutes of limitations that apply to these cases. We have to make sure that if we're not going to get these cases resolved through the pre-litigation phase, that we do file a law suit to preserve our clients' rights. And statues of limitations can vary from case to case. When you call the Pineyro Law Firm, one of the things you want to make sure you're aware of is how much time the lawyer has to file the law suit.