Going to Court - Who, How, Where, Why

How does going to court after a personal injury work?

If you've been injured, then you know what it is like to be forced into a position you wouldn't otherwise choose to be in. Nobody wants to be injured, and nobody wants to have to go to court. Nevertheless, thousands of people everyday find themselves being subjected to both: A terrible personal injury, and a dreaded impending court journey.

At Osenbaugh Law we step in to explain the big picture and handle all the details for you. For those looking to learn more, we have information, such as this blog, publicly available. If you think you might have a case, contact us now for a free consultation. Otherwise, read on and learn about the basics of the Oklahoma court system.

Who is the boss?

Going to court is a lot like asking for the manager when a problem arises at a grocery store. The best course of action, and the one most people take every day, is being able to go to the store, buy your items, and leave, never having to interact with the manager. Sometimes minor problems can arise that a nearby employee can handle, and sometimes the problem isn't handled and a manager needs to intervene. In the real world, the court is the manager at the grocery store. Ideally, nobody ever gets injured and if they do, nobody ever has to go to court to get a fair payment. Sometimes, though, we have to get the Court involved.

To understand Oklahoma courts, you first have to understand why the courts are the manager. In the United States, we have two separate forms of government: There is the government that operates across the entire country called the Federal government, and there is the government that operates in the state, here the Oklahoma State government (there are other types of government we won't discuss). In a grocery store, this is like having a store manager who handles issues at one location (Oklahoma State), and a regional manager who handles issues across multiple locations (the Federal Government). The governments do more than just handle issues based on location, but we will not go into detail on those matters.

How does court start?

When it comes to starting your case, the first question is which manager to bring your problem to. Most of the time, the manager we choose is going to be the Oklahoma State Government, as they are like the store manager who handles all the issues in a given location. However, sometimes in some cases, we go to the Federal Government, which is like the regional or corporate manager who handles issues between locations. Talking to the store manager versus the regional manager requires following different rules and doing different processes, with different fees and requirements—but that's what the lawyers are for.

Where do I go?

Once we pick a manager or court system, we then need to go to that manager's office, the courthouse. The Federal Government has three courts in Oklahoma (one in each of Tulsa, Muskogee, and Oklahoma City), while the Oklahoma State Government has a court in every county (and a few other courts). So if this were a store, then in most cases, we will be looking to the store manager in your county to handle your issue. In legal terms, we will be in the jurisdiction (manager) of the Oklahoma State Government, and the venue (office) will be the courthouse in one of the counties. The exact county selected can be a complicated process to explain, but it is usually the county where the accident happened or the county where the defendant (explained below) lives.

Who goes to court?

When you get to Courthouse, the people there begin speaking another language! Legalese! This is where the staff and the patrons in the Court use specific words with very specific meanings that might prevent it from being obvious what they are saying. Some of those words are explained here, as well as who those people are.

When you walk into the courthouse you will go past security and make your way to the courtroom, usually near the judges chambers. The judges chambers is an office where the judge and their staff work on cases when they are not in open court. Open court means the judge is sitting in the judge's chair in a courtroom (presiding), and the court is open to hearing cases because the judge is there. The judge might have a bailiff there who works with that judge to keep everyone safe and enforce the rules of the court. The judge may have a court clerk who most likely has an office outside of the judge's own office in the judge's chambers. The court clerk schedules hearings on the calendar, accepts and files documents, and maintains the deadlines and collects the fees for court proceedings. Occasionally, a court might have a court reporter who joins a hearing, and their job is to listen to everything happening and type it down as it happens (using a special keyboard) to make a transcript, or a book, of everything that is said. Most likely, all of these professionals will be new people you haven't met before.

The other people in the case are more likely to be people you have seen: The plaintiff in the case is the person who brings the lawsuit and complains that somebody has done something wrong—the person who went to get the manager. The defendant is the person who has to defend themselves and say they did not do something wrong. There can be multiple people going to the manager at the same time (multiple plaintiffs), and they can be complaining about multiple people who did something wrong (multiple defendants). Together, these groups are referred to by one word: parties. If the parties have a lawyer, the lawyer is called their counsel because they counsel, or give advice, on what to do legally. Counsel usually sit on opposite sides of the courtroom from each other (but small State Courts might have courtrooms with different layouts), and the parties sit with their counsel.

Why is everybody here?

The parties are here because the plaintiff filed a petition / complaint against the defendant and served them with process. The defendant, after receiving process, filed an answer, and the court clerk set a time for the judge to hear all of the claims the parties made. The judge will have a hearing and listen to the parties, and afterwards will make an order with their findings and holdings. Initial hearings are often to make sure a case has merits to continue, and the judge will set (have the court clerk and lawyers set) trial dates. The trial will either be a jury trial with a group of every-day people selected to watch the trial and decide what facts are true, or a bench trial where the judge will decide what facts are true. In every trial, the judge always decides what the law says. These are a lot of vocabulary words!

In the next blog we will discuss the vocabulary words in this paragraph and the initial Court proceedings.