A car accident lawsuit in Washington gives you a way to be compensated when the other driver's insurance company will not offer enough to cover the costs of a crash. If fault is disputed, a lawsuit allows a judge and jury to decide the outcome.

Not every lawsuit ends in a trial, and you can accept a settlement at any point after a lawsuit begins. Washington’s personal injury statute of limitations typically gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit.

From Insurance Claim to Lawsuit

After a car accident, you tell your own insurance company what happened. If your policy includes personal injury protection, it pays your medical bills up to the limit of that coverage no matter who caused the crash. A claim also opens with the other driver's insurance company, which assigns one of its own employees, called an adjuster, to review it. An adjuster usually asks you for your medical records and bills and proof of the pay you lost, and the insurance company may then offer you an amount of money to settle.

You can accept the amount offered, or you can ask for more money and send additional records to support the request. Here are a few examples of when it might be best to move beyond the claim to a lawsuit:

Your medical bills and lost pay added together come to more than the amount offered, and the adjuster will not raise it after you send more records.
The adjuster says the other driver did not cause the crash, or blames you for part of it and lowers the offer for that reason.
The driver's policy limit is lower than what your injuries have cost you.
Weeks pass with no answer from the adjuster.

Freeman Law Firm can tell you whether one of these fits your claim, or whether another reason does, and what the alternative to settling is worth. Reviewing an offer that way is part of what a car accident lawyer does before any lawsuit starts.

Who You Sue and Who Pays

In most car accident cases in Washington, your lawsuit names the driver who hit you rather than the insurance company. When the driver has coverage for the crash, the insurance company pays the lawyer who defends that driver, and it pays the settlement or the verdict up to the limit of the policy.

What a Car Accident Lawsuit Compensates You For

Washington divides your losses into two groups:

Economic losses have a bill or a record behind them, including your medical treatment so far, the care you still need, the pay you lost, and the earnings you can no longer reach if your injuries keep you out of the work you did before.

Noneconomic losses cover pain, disability, disfigurement, emotional distress, harm to your relationship with your spouse, and the activities you can no longer take part in. Washington puts no dollar limit on noneconomic losses, so a jury decides the amount.

The Deadline to File a Car Accident Lawsuit in Washington

Treatment that continues into a second year does not change your three-year deadline, because the count begins on the date of the crash. Negotiations with an adjuster do not extend it.

Your deadline applies to starting the lawsuit rather than finishing it, so a case begun in the third year can continue after the three years have passed.

Exceptions to the Three-Year Deadline

Washington law delays or pauses the three-year deadline in several situations:

Injured children: A victim who was under eighteen on the date of the crash gets the full three years beginning on the eighteenth birthday, so a child hurt at ten can still bring a case as an adult.
Brain injuries and other conditions: A victim who was unable to understand the case on the date of the crash gets the three years beginning when that ability returns.
A driver who hides: Time does not count toward the three years while the at-fault driver conceals their whereabouts so that the documents cannot be delivered. A driver who moves to another state can still be served there or through the Washington Secretary of State, so the deadline keeps running.
Injuries discovered later: An injury that could not reasonably have been discovered at the time gives you three years from the date when you knew, or should have known, that you were hurt and that another driver caused it. Injuries from a crash are usually clear right away, so the later start date applies to few car accident cases.
Fatal crashes: The personal representative of the estate gets three years from the date of death, which can be months or years after the crash itself.
Death of the at-fault driver: The three-year deadline still applies, and a case brought against the estate can be paid out of the driver's insurance. Recovering more than the policy pays usually depends on presenting a claim in the estate within a much shorter probate deadline.

What Happens After You File a Car Accident Lawsuit

The Complaint

Your lawyer prepares a complaint, a document that names the driver who hit you and describes the crash. Washington does not let a complaint for injuries state a dollar amount, so it asks instead for damages to be decided in the case. The defense can request a written statement of what you are asking for, and you have fifteen days to send it.

Which Court Hears Your Case

Larger car accident cases go to superior court, so a crash in Tacoma is usually filed in Pierce County, a crash in Renton in King County, and a crash in Olympia in Thurston County. A case worth no more than one hundred thousand dollars can go to district court instead.

Delivering the Documents to the Other Driver

A process server usually hands the complaint and a summons to the driver in person. Washington allows other methods when the driver cannot be found. Documents can be left at the driver's home with an adult who lives there, and a driver who has left the state can be served through the Washington Secretary of State.

The Other Driver's Answer

Twenty days after delivery, the driver owes you a written response called an answer, and sixty days apply when the delivery happens outside Washington. A defense lawyer writes it, and the answer commonly denies that the driver caused the crash and may blame you for part of it. A denial arrives before anyone has been questioned under oath, so it tells you little about how strong your case is.

Your Trial Date

Pierce County and King County issue a case schedule as soon as the complaint is filed. Thurston County sends a notice of assignment with a trial scheduling date instead, and the full schedule follows after that. The court now sets the dates for both sides.

What Happens During Discovery

Discovery is the part of the case where each side has to give the other side information. Your lawyer sends written questions and requests for documents to the defense, and the defense sends the same to you. Your answers are given under oath, the same as testimony in a courtroom.

The Records You Turn Over

The defense can ask that you be examined by a doctor it chooses. The examination goes ahead if your lawyer agrees to it, or if a judge orders it after finding your physical condition genuinely disputed. Reports from these examinations may disagree with your own doctors about how serious your injuries are, or about whether the crash caused them. Your lawyer can object to a request for records unrelated to your injuries, and a judge settles the disagreement.

Your Deposition

A deposition is a meeting where the defense lawyer asks you questions out loud and a court reporter writes down every word. Depositions usually take place at a lawyer's office rather than at the courthouse, and your own lawyer usually sits with you. Questions cover the crash, your injuries, your treatment, and the work you missed. What you say can be read to the jury at trial, so your lawyer will go over the questions with you beforehand.

The Examination by the Insurance Company's Doctor

Because the doctor is chosen and paid by the defense, and the assessment comes from one visit and a file of records rather than from months of treating you, the report can read your injuries as less severe than your own doctors do, or trace them to something other than the crash. Your treatment continues as before, and the records from your own doctors remain part of the case.

Expert Witnesses

Both sides name the doctors and specialists who will give opinions at trial. A specialist who studies how crashes happen may be hired when the two sides disagree about the cause. Your case schedule sets the date when discovery closes and each name has to be disclosed.

Mediation and Arbitration

Mediation

Mediation is a day set aside for both sides to try to settle with the help of a neutral person called a mediator. You and your lawyer usually sit in one room, the defense sits in another, and the mediator moves between them carrying offers and questions. A mediator has no power to decide your case or to make you accept anything, and you can leave without an agreement.

Arbitration

Washington requires arbitration in its larger counties, Pierce, King, and Thurston among them, for cases where neither side claims more than one hundred thousand dollars. A case moves there once a party files a statement saying it qualifies. An arbitrator hears a shortened version of the case and issues a written award, which usually arrives sooner than a trial date. Either side then has twenty days to reject the award and ask for a new trial. A side that asks for the new trial and fails to improve on the award is ordered to pay the other side's costs and attorney fees.

What To Expect at Trial

Jury selection comes first, and people summoned from the county are questioned before the jury is chosen. Each side gives an opening statement. Your lawyer then presents your case, usually through your own testimony, your medical records, and the doctors who treated you. The defense presents its version afterward, and both sides give closing arguments before the case goes to the jury.

A jury generally decides who caused the crash and what your injuries are worth, along with each driver's share of the blame when the defense argues that you were partly responsible. Washington's pure comparative negligence rule reduces your award by your share rather than taking it away, so twenty percent of the blame on you turns a one hundred thousand dollar award into eighty thousand.

After a Settlement or Verdict

Settlement money will normally go into your lawyer's trust account rather than straight to you. Your lawyer pays the fee and case costs out of that account, along with reimbursement owed to health insurers or medical providers who covered your treatment. The balance is yours, and your lawyer should give you a written breakdown of every deduction.

A driver who loses at trial can appeal, which adds time before any money is paid.

How Long a Car Accident Lawsuit Takes in Washington

King County's local rules set time targets for civil cases: ninety percent settled or tried within twelve months of filing, ninety-eight percent within eighteen months, and the rest within twenty-four, apart from cases the court treats as exceptional. Thurston County gives most cases a trial scheduling date about one hundred twenty days after filing, and the full schedule follows once the case is ready to be set for trial. Your own treatment usually decides how long your case takes, because a case settles for less when it ends before your doctors know whether your injuries are permanent. Freeman Law Firm’s client journey consists of five stages, from the investigation that starts the case to the closing that ends it.

Talk to a Washington Car Accident Lawyer

Freeman Law Firm represents Washington's injured drivers and passengers from offices in Tacoma, Renton, and Olympia, and takes car accident cases to trial in Pierce, King, and Thurston County superior court. Consultations are free, and we are paid from your recovery rather than by the hour. If your crash happened in Pierce County, our Tacoma car accident attorneys can look at what the adjuster has offered you and tell you what your case is worth. Call today at (253) 383-4500 or send us an email.

The Car Accident Lawsuit Process