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Most Phoenix personal injury cases never see a jury. The large majority resolve through settlement or mediation, and only a small fraction reach a verdict. But when your case is one of the ones that has to go to trial, you need to know what’s coming. This article walks through the trial process phoenix lawyer clients actually experience, from the pretrial motions that shape the fight to the jury math that decides what you recover. It’s written for the person who has a case, has a lawyer, and wants to know what the next 12 to 24 months look like inside a Maricopa County courtroom.
If you’re still earlier in the process, we can help you figure out where your case fits. Free case review: (602) 345-1818.
A civil case doesn’t just show up on a trial calendar. A long list of things has to happen before a judge assigns a firm trial date.
Filing the complaint. The lawsuit has to be filed inside the deadline. In Arizona, you have 2 years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit under A.R.S. § 12-542. If a government entity is involved (the City of Phoenix, Maricopa County, ADOT, a state employee), you also have to serve a formal notice of claim within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01. Miss either deadline and there’s no trial to talk about. This is why we drill down on the 2-year statute of limitations the first time we meet a new client.
Discovery. After the complaint and answer, both sides exchange documents, medical records, and answers to written questions. Depositions happen: yours, the defendant’s, and the experts on both sides. Discovery in a typical Maricopa County PI case runs 6 to 12 months. It’s where cases get won and lost before anyone walks into a courtroom.
Mediation or settlement conference. Most Superior Court judges will require the parties to try to settle before trial, either through private mediation or a judicial settlement conference. This is where many cases end.
Offer of judgment under Rule 68. This one matters. Under Ariz. R. Civ. P. 68, either side can serve a formal offer of judgment. If you reject the offer and the jury verdict comes in less favorable than the offer, you can be on the hook for the defense’s expert witness fees and double taxable costs from the date of the offer forward. Defense lawyers use Rule 68 to force plaintiffs to seriously weigh a middling settlement. It’s a real pressure point and part of why the decision to try a case is never taken lightly.
If you’re evaluating an offer the adjuster claims is “as high as they’ll go,” this is the moment to get real advice. We see lowball settlement offers dressed up as final offers all the time. Call us before you sign anything: (602) 345-1818.
Damages control the courthouse. Under A.R.S. § 12-123, Maricopa County Superior Court is the court of general jurisdiction and hears personal injury cases with damages exceeding $10,000. Smaller cases go to Justice Court under A.R.S. § 22-201. Almost every serious PI trial you’d care about lands in Superior Court.
Cases are randomly assigned to a Superior Court judge shortly after filing. That judge handles all pretrial motions, sets the scheduling order, and presides at trial. Trial usually happens at one of the downtown Phoenix or Southeast (Mesa) courthouses depending on assignment.
Venue matters more than most clients realize. The pool of prospective jurors, the local judge’s rulings on motions in limine, and even the room layout affect how a case plays. A trial lawyer who’s been through Maricopa Superior Court hundreds of times reads those rooms differently than someone parachuting in.
The first phase of the actual trial is voir dire. Under Ariz. R. Civ. P. 47, the court and the attorneys question prospective jurors to identify bias. In Maricopa Superior Court, voir dire typically takes 1 to 2 days for a personal injury case.
Arizona uses an 8-person civil jury under A.R.S. § 21-102(B). Under Ariz. R. Civ. P. 48, at least 6 of the 8 jurors must agree on the verdict. That’s the number to remember: 6 of 8. You don’t need unanimity, but you can’t just win a bare majority.
What we’re looking for in voir dire: jurors who can be honest about their views on lawsuits, on insurance, on chiropractic and physical therapy treatment, on pain that doesn’t show on an X-ray. What defense counsel is looking for: jurors who think most PI cases are exaggerated. This tug-of-war is the whole point of the phase.
Each side gives an opening statement. It’s not argument. It’s a roadmap of what the evidence will show. Plaintiff goes first, defense goes second, though the defense can sometimes reserve opening until the start of their case.
A good opening in a Phoenix PI trial tells the jury three things in the first 5 minutes: who the client is, what the defendant did wrong, and what it cost. Everything after that is filling in the picture.
This is where we put on the evidence. Witnesses are called in order that makes narrative sense, not chronological sense.
Future medical costs. If the case includes ongoing treatment, we can’t just tell the jury “she’ll need more surgery.” Under the Arizona Rules of Evidence, future medical costs have to be proven through expert medical testimony projecting the specific future treatments, their necessity, and their reasonable cost. No expert testimony, no future medicals in the verdict.
Economic damages cover the quantifiable financial losses: medical bills, lost wages, future medical costs, and property damage. Records go into evidence. Pay stubs go into evidence. Experts explain the future numbers. The Arizona Recommended Jury Instructions (RAJI) tell the jury this is one of two categories they’ll be asked to award. We break these down in more detail in our page on economic damages.
Non-economic damages are the second category: pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life. These come through client testimony and the people who watched the injury change the client’s daily life. Here’s what makes Arizona structurally different from most states: the Arizona Constitution, at Article II § 31 and Article XVIII § 6, prohibits any statute capping damages for death or personal injury. Unlike most states, a Phoenix jury’s pain-and-suffering award is not capped by statute. That’s a big deal and it changes settlement math. More on how these are argued at trial in our non-economic damages resource.
After the plaintiff rests, the defense almost always files a motion for judgment as a matter of law under Ariz. R. Civ. P. 50. This is the directed verdict motion. The defense argues that even taking the plaintiff’s evidence in the best possible light, no reasonable jury could find for the plaintiff.
Most of these motions are denied. But they aren’t a formality. If the plaintiff hasn’t put on legally sufficient evidence on any element (duty, breach, causation, damages), the case ends right there. Getting past the Rule 50 motion is the mid-trial hurdle every plaintiff has to clear.
The defense then presents its witnesses: their own reconstruction expert, an “independent” medical examiner who typically minimizes the injuries, sometimes a biomechanical engineer arguing the crash forces couldn’t have caused the injuries the plaintiff claims. Cross-examination of these witnesses is where a lot of PI cases are decided.
Most Phoenix PI cases don’t include a claim for punitive damages. The ones that do are usually DUI accidents, road rage, or intentional or grossly negligent conduct. Under Linthicum v. Nationwide Life Insurance Co., the plaintiff has to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with an “evil mind,” meaning conscious disregard for the rights of others. That’s a heightened burden well above the ordinary preponderance standard used for the rest of the case, and it usually requires a separate phase of the trial to present evidence of the defendant’s financial condition.
After both sides rest, the judge reads the jury instructions and both sides give closing arguments. Plaintiff goes first, defense goes second, and plaintiff gets a rebuttal because we carry the burden of proof.
The instructions tell the jury how the verdict form works. In an Arizona civil case, the form asks the jury to:
The court then applies the math after the verdict is returned.
This is the part most people don’t understand until they see it happen.
Arizona uses pure comparative negligence under A.R.S. § 12-2505. The plaintiff’s recovery is reduced in proportion to the plaintiff’s percentage of fault, and there’s no bar to recovery even at high fault percentages. If a jury assigns you 99% of the fault, you still recover 1% of your damages. That’s genuinely different from the “modified” comparative negligence rules in a number of other states that cut off recovery at 50% or 51%. We go deeper on this in our page on Arizona’s comparative negligence rule.
The formula:
Total damages × (100% minus plaintiff’s fault percentage) = recovery amount.
Example: The jury finds total damages of $100,000 and assigns the plaintiff 30% of the fault. The recovery is $100,000 × 70% = $70,000.
Now the second piece: several liability. Under A.R.S. § 12-2506, Arizona has abolished joint liability in most cases. Each defendant pays only their assigned share of fault. There is no joint payment where one solvent defendant covers an insolvent one. In a multi-defendant crash (say, two other drivers plus a rideshare company), the jury allocates a percentage to each, and each defendant is only on the hook for their own slice. This shapes how we develop the case and which parties we name.
Practical implication for settlement. Defense adjusters routinely try to inflate the plaintiff’s fault percentage during pretrial negotiations to bring settlement numbers down. Sometimes they’ll argue the plaintiff was speeding, distracted, or slow to brake with almost no evidence. Countering that requires physical evidence, reconstruction, event data recorder downloads, and cross-examinable eyewitnesses. That work is done in discovery, not at trial.
The verdict is not always the last word.
Motion for new trial or remittitur. Under Ariz. R. Civ. P. 59, the losing side has 15 days after entry of judgment to move for a new trial or a remittitur (a court-ordered reduction of the verdict amount). Grounds include jury misconduct, newly discovered evidence, an excessive or inadequate verdict, or legal error. Most of these are denied. Some succeed.
Appeal. After post-trial motions are ruled on, the losing side can appeal to the Arizona Court of Appeals. Appeals can add 12 to 24 months to the case. Interest accrues on the judgment during that time.
Collection. Even after a verdict is final, someone has to collect it. In a case with adequate insurance, the carrier writes the check. In an uninsured or underinsured case, collection can be its own separate battle.
Trying a personal injury case in Phoenix is a real commitment: pretrial motions, discovery, mediation, offers of judgment, jury selection, expert testimony, verdict math, and possibly appeal. It’s also the reason the settlement leverage works. A defendant who knows their file is being prepared by a firm that actually tries cases will value it differently than a file that looks like it will be dumped for whatever the adjuster offers.
If you’re getting close to a settlement decision, or you’ve been told your case has to be filed, we can walk you through what a Maricopa County trial would actually look like for your specific facts.
From filing to verdict, most Maricopa County Superior Court personal injury cases take 12 to 24 months. Complex cases with multiple defendants or catastrophic injuries can take longer. Discovery, mediation, and the court’s own trial calendar all affect the timing.
Yes, in almost every case. The jury needs to see and hear from the person who was injured. We prepare clients thoroughly for direct examination and cross-examination well before trial.
Under A.R.S. § 12-2506, the jury can assign a percentage of fault to a non-party, meaning someone who was involved in causing the injury but isn’t a defendant in the lawsuit. The defense uses this to shift blame to absent parties, which can reduce what the actual defendants owe.
No. The Arizona Constitution, at Article II § 31 and Article XVIII § 6, prohibits statutes that cap damages for death or personal injury. This is different from most states and it directly affects the value of serious injury cases in Phoenix.
If the defense served a formal offer of judgment under Ariz. R. Civ. P. 68, and the jury verdict is less favorable to you than the offer, you can be ordered to pay the defense’s expert witness fees and double taxable costs from the date of the offer. This is why offers of judgment are taken seriously and evaluated with your lawyer in detail.
Yes. Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state under A.R.S. § 12-2505. You can recover even if you’re 99% at fault, though your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. So a $100,000 verdict with 99% plaintiff fault becomes a $1,000 recovery, but it isn’t zero.
If you’re staring down the possibility of trial, or you just want to know whether your case is being prepared like it might have to go to one, we’re glad to talk it through. No pressure, no obligation.
Free case review: (602) 345-1818. We answer 24/7. No attorney’s fees unless we recover (specific fee and cost terms are set out in the written representation agreement).
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
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