{"id":1198,"date":"2012-07-25T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T13:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allenandallen.com\/general-district-court-or-circuit-court-which-is-better-for-your-personal-injury-case-in-virginia\/"},"modified":"2024-08-12T10:07:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T15:07:08","slug":"tribunal-general-de-distrito-o-tribunal-de-circuito-cual-es-mejor-para-su-caso-de-lesiones-personales-en-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allenandallen.com\/es\/blog\/general-district-court-or-circuit-court-which-is-better-for-your-personal-injury-case-in-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribunal de distrito general o tribunal de circuito: cu\u00e1l es mejor para su caso de lesiones personales en Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>In Virginia, a \u00a0person cannot force an insurance company pay a settlement for their personal injury claim. Instead, the only right an injured person has is a trial to seek a judgment on their behalf against the party that caused the injury.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Two different state courts typically decide my clients cases; either General District Court or Circuit Court.\u00a0 Let me describe some of the differences between these two courts.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>General District Court&#8217;s jurisdiction is limited to an amount that does not exceed $25,000.\u00a0 In other words, the Court can award any amount from nothing at all up to $25,000. <a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Also, the amount of the award is decided by a judge, not a jury.\u00a0 Usually a trial date is available in General District Court earlier than in Circuit Court.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Circuit Court trials are presided over by judges, but the amount of the award to compensate the injured person is determined by a jury composed of seven people (unless both sides agree to have the judge decide the amount).\u00a0 The original jurisdiction of a Circuit Court is for any amount that exceeds $4,500.\u00a0 The potential award to compensate an injured person is not limited to $25,000.\u00a0 Instead, the amount of the award is limited only by the &#8220;ad damnum&#8221; (amount requested) in the lawsuit. This amount is entirely up to the discretion of the plaintiff&#8217;s lawyer. Of course, it is for the jury to determine whether the ad damnum amount, or a lesser amount, should be awarded.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A significant difference between the two courts relates to testimony regarding medical treatment and the diagnosis of injuries.\u00a0 In General District Court, that evidence can be presented through sworn affidavits attached to either the medical chart or a report prepared by the treating physician.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Obviously, such documents cannot be cross-examined by an attorney defending the case.\u00a0 Furthermore, the cost of securing this testimony is fairly modest.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In Circuit Court, however, evidence regarding medical treatment and injuries cannot be admitted at trial by affidavit.\u00a0 Such documents are considered inadmissible hearsay. Instead, testimony must be presented by a treating medical provider either in person during trial, or by a deposition taken before hand.\u00a0 In both instances, the medical provider is subject to cross-examination by the defense attorney hired by the insurance company.\u00a0 Furthermore, these treating medical providers are considered &#8220;experts&#8221;, and consequently charge for their time.\u00a0 It is not unusual for a treating doctor to require several thousand dollars to appear live at trial to testify.\u00a0 Generally a deposition, taken in their office before the trial date, is less expensive but still typically costs a significant amount of money.\u00a0 The cost of securing this testimony is an &#8220;expense of litigation&#8221;.\u00a0 Although lawyers are permitted to advance such expenses on a client&#8217;s behalf, our ethical rules require that a client ultimately be responsible for all of the expenses incurred preparing and presenting their case at trial.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In summary, some of the advantages of General District Court are a quicker resolution at less cost to the client.\u00a0 Some advantages to Circuit Court include trial by a jury of one&#8217;s peers as well as the potential to recover more than $25,000.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A final comment regarding General District Court is that either side has the absolute right to appeal any judgment rendered by a General District Court judge (provided the amount in controversy is greater than $50.00).\u00a0 Such an appeal, if taken by either party, is heard in the Circuit Court. The jury that determines the amount to award the injured person in Circuit Court does so without any knowledge of the judgment previously rendered by the General District Court judge.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>About the Author:<\/strong> Charles Allen is a Richmond car accident lawyer with the <a title=\"Richmond personal injury law firm\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allenandallen.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Richmond personal injury law firm<\/a> of Allen, Allen, Allen &amp; Allen. He has handled injury cases for Virginians for more than 25 years. Mr. Allen works on cases primarily from the Richmond, Mechanicsville and Short Pump office.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" \/>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref1\"><sup><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Workers compensation claims, however, are adjudicated by the Workers Compensation Commission, not in these \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0two courts. <sup>2<\/sup> See information about General District Court in the website of the Supreme Court of Virginia, at &#8220;Virginia&#8217;s Judicial System&#8221; at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.courts.state.va.us\/courts\/gd\/home.html\">http:\/\/www.courts.state.va.us\/courts\/gd\/home.html<\/a>. <sup>3<\/sup> For Va statute allowing this, see Va. Code \u00a716.1-88.2 at\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/leg1.state.va.us\/cgi-bin\/legp504.exe?000+cod+16.1-88.2\">http:\/\/leg1.state.va.us\/cgi-bin\/legp504.exe?000+cod+16.1-88.2<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>En Virginia, una persona no puede obligar a una compa\u00f1\u00eda de seguros a pagar un acuerdo por su reclamo por lesiones personales. En cambio, el \u00fanico derecho que tiene una persona lesionada es un juicio para buscar ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>General District Court or Circuit Court - Which is Better for Your Personal Injury Case in Virginia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Virginia, a \u00a0person cannot force an insurance company pay a settlement for their personal injury claim. Instead, the only right an injured person has\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allenandallen.com\/es\/blog\/tribunal-general-de-distrito-o-tribunal-de-circuito-cual-es-mejor-para-su-caso-de-lesiones-personales-en-virginia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"General District Court or Circuit Court - Which is Better for Your Personal Injury Case in Virginia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Virginia, a \u00a0person cannot force an insurance company pay a settlement for their personal injury claim. 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En cambio, el \u00fanico derecho que tiene una persona lesionada","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.allenandallen.com\/es\/blog\/tribunal-general-de-distrito-o-tribunal-de-circuito-cual-es-mejor-para-su-caso-de-lesiones-personales-en-virginia\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"General District Court or Circuit Court - Which is Better for Your Personal Injury Case in Virginia","og_description":"In Virginia, a \u00a0person cannot force an insurance company pay a settlement for their personal injury claim. 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