After a deposition in a personal injury case, the transcript goes through a formal review, discovery often continues, and both sides reassess before moving toward settlement or trial. Most cases settle, but the weeks and months after your deposition usually decide whether that settlement is fair or whether a courtroom becomes necessary.
Reviewing the Transcript
A court reporter turns everything said at the deposition into a written record. You and your attorney get a copy, and under the federal rules you have 30 days to review it and flag errors. This step matters more than most people expect. A single misheard word can shift the meaning of an answer, and opposing counsel will hold you to whatever the transcript says.
Corrections go on an errata sheet listing each change and the reason for it. The federal rules allow changes “in form or substance,” but courts vary in how broadly they read that language. Some permit substantive edits; others limit corrections to transcription errors like misspellings. Either way, the original answer stays in the record, and the other side can use any contradiction to attack your credibility. Fix real errors, but don’t rewrite your testimony.
How Your Testimony Can Be Used
Your deposition isn’t filed away and forgotten. The most common use is impeachment: if you say something at trial that conflicts with your deposition answer, opposing counsel will read the earlier version to the jury.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 32 – Using Depositions in Court Proceedings
A deposition can also stand in for live testimony if a witness dies, becomes too ill to attend, lives more than 100 miles from the courthouse, or can’t be located.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 32 – Using Depositions in Court Proceedings And when the deponent is a party or a corporate representative, the opposing side can use that deposition for any purpose at all.
Follow-Up Discovery
Depositions rarely end discovery. They tend to generate new leads. An answer about a prior medical condition might prompt a request for older records; a vague answer about lost income might lead to targeted follow-up. Attorneys chase those threads with written interrogatories,2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 33 – Interrogatories to Parties requests for production of documents and records,3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 34 – Producing Documents, Electronically Stored Information, and Tangible Things, or Entering onto Land, for Inspection and Other Purposes and requests for admissions that force the other side to agree or deny specific facts. A party who ignores a request for admission for 30 days is treated as having admitted it, and the fact becomes conclusively established for the case.4Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 36 – Requests for Admission
When Settlement Talks Begin
Once both sides have a clear picture of the evidence, settlement discussions get serious. Your attorney typically sends a demand package laying out your injuries, medical expenses, lost income, and other damages, along with a specific dollar figure. The insurer or defense attorney responds with a counteroffer, and negotiation goes from there. Expect the first serious settlement conversation roughly 30 to 90 days after the final deposition. Complex cases take longer.
Mediation
If direct negotiation stalls, mediation is usually the next step. A neutral mediator meets with both sides, often in separate rooms, and works to find common ground. The mediator doesn’t decide anything or force a result. Their value is giving each side a realistic view of what trial would look like, which tends to loosen positions that seemed locked. Many courts require mediation before they’ll schedule a trial date, and the process resolves a significant share of cases that direct negotiation couldn’t.
Pre-Trial Motions
When settlement fails, both sides file motions asking the judge to shape what happens at trial. Two come up in nearly every personal injury case.
A motion in limine asks the court to exclude specific evidence before trial begins.5Legal Information Institute. Motion in Limine The defense might try to keep out evidence of a prior settlement offer; the plaintiff might seek to bar irrelevant medical history. These rulings keep prejudicial information from reaching the jury, since telling jurors to “disregard that” rarely works as well as judges hope.
A motion for summary judgment asks the court to decide the case without a trial. The moving party must show there’s no genuine dispute about any material fact and that the law entitles them to win.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56 – Summary Judgment In personal injury cases these motions sometimes succeed on narrow issues but rarely dispose of the whole case, because fault and the extent of injuries almost always involve factual disputes a jury has to resolve.
Trial
If nothing resolves the case, it goes to trial. Jury selection comes first. Then opening statements, with the plaintiff going first because the plaintiff carries the burden of proof. Evidence comes in through witness testimony and exhibits like medical records, accident photos, and expert reports, with cross-examination from each side. After closing arguments, the jury decides two core questions: whether the defendant is liable and, if so, how much money the plaintiff should receive.
After the Verdict
A verdict doesn’t always end the fight. The losing side has 28 days to file a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, arguing that no reasonable jury could have reached that verdict on the evidence. To preserve the right to bring it, the same argument must have been raised during trial.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 50 – Judgment as a Matter of Law in a Jury Trial; Related Motion for a New Trial; Conditional Ruling Courts grant these sparingly. A motion for a new trial, filed under the same 28-day deadline, argues that trial errors were serious enough to start over.
If post-verdict motions fail, the losing party can appeal. In federal cases, the notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of the judgment.8Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 4 – Appeal as of Right, When Taken Appeals focus on legal errors, not factual disputes. An appellate court won’t re-weigh evidence or second-guess the jury’s credibility calls. It reviews whether the trial judge made incorrect legal rulings that affected the outcome. State appeal deadlines vary but are similarly tight, and missing the window means losing the right to appeal.
Getting Paid
Whether your case ends in settlement or verdict, the money doesn’t come straight to you. Settlement funds go to your attorney’s trust account, where your attorney accounts for everything that has to be paid from the proceeds before you see the balance.
Attorney fees come out first. Most personal injury lawyers work on contingency, taking a percentage of the recovery rather than billing hourly. The standard is about one-third, often rising to 40% if the case went to trial. Litigation costs are deducted separately and can include filing fees, expert witness fees, deposition transcript costs, and other expenses your attorney advanced.
Then come medical liens, which is where many clients get surprised. If Medicare, Medicaid, or a private health insurer paid for treatment related to your injuries, they have a legal right to be reimbursed from your settlement. Medicare’s process is especially rigid. It treats its payments as conditional, meaning they were always meant to be repaid once the responsible party’s insurer paid out. Your attorney must report the settlement and work with Medicare’s recovery contractor to set the final reimbursement amount before disbursing your share.9CMS.gov. Medicare’s Recovery Process Failing to satisfy a Medicare lien creates personal liability for both you and your attorney, so it can’t be skipped.
What’s left goes to you. Some settlements are paid as a single lump sum; others use a structured settlement that provides tax-free payments over a period of years.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Should I Know Before Giving Up My Monthly Disability, Personal Injury, or Structured Settlement Payments in Exchange for a One-Time Lump Sum Payment Structured settlements can be worth considering for larger awards because they provide long-term income and favorable tax treatment.
Taxes on Your Recovery
The tax treatment depends on what the money compensates. Get it wrong and you can owe the IRS a significant amount you didn’t plan for.
Compensation for physical injuries or physical sickness is excluded from gross income. That covers medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages tied to the physical injury, and future medical expenses.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness The exclusion applies whether the money comes from a settlement or a verdict, and whether it arrives as a lump sum or periodic payments.12Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments
Emotional distress damages follow a different rule. If the distress stems directly from a physical injury, those damages are tax-free along with the rest of the physical injury recovery. If the emotional distress claim stands on its own without an underlying physical injury, the damages are taxable as ordinary income. One narrow exception: you can exclude emotional distress damages up to the amount you actually paid for medical care to treat the emotional distress itself.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness
Punitive damages are always taxable, even when they’re awarded alongside a tax-free physical injury recovery.12Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments Because of these distinctions, how your settlement agreement allocates the money among categories of damages has real tax consequences. Work through that allocation with your attorney before you sign.