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How Long Will It Take To Settle My Personal Injury Claim?
Being involved in a motor vehicle crash is a typically stressful and very traumatic experience for all parties involved. All accident victims are highly motivated to feel better and start healing. Then there is getting your car repaired and in working shape. This article will discuss the many factors and phases that affect the time it takes and answer the frequently asked question How Long Will It Take To Settle My Personal Injury Case.
One of the most common questions in a personal injury case is “how long will it take to settle my personal injury case?” Most people injured in an accident, understandably want to be made whole from the settlement and move on with their lives. However, due to the different complexities and factors involved in each case, it is impossible to determine when the case will settle. If you’re expecting a perfect answer to the question, How Long Will It Take To Settle My Personal Injury Case, you’re not likely to get it. It’s highly unpredictable precisely how much time a specific car crash case will take. As a general rule, an auto accident lawsuit proceeds through a series of phases, and the amount of time for each phase varies significantly. In some cases, it could take as little as a few months or as long as several years, with the possibility of receiving a car accident settlement at any point along the way.
Factors such as the facts and circumstances surrounding the accident, the nature and extent of the client’s injuries, the type and duration of the client’s medical treatment, the reasonableness of the insurance company’s evaluation, and the other driver’s insurance policy limits, all play a role in the amount of time it will take to settle. For example, a case where the other driver is clearly at fault and the client has relatively minor injuries with a couple of months of treatment will usually settle quicker than a case where liability is in dispute and the client has life-altering injuries with multiple surgeries.
What Are The Sequence Of Phases Or Steps To Settle My Personal Injury Case
Phase 1: The accident victim files a complaint, and the legal procedure is formally started by the court.
Phase 2: The accident victim serves the respondent with a copy of the complaint. This can take several days to 120 days or more to complete, especially when the defendant is exceptionally challenging to find and pinpoint the person in question.
Phase 3: The respondent submits a response to the complaint. Depending on the court’s jurisdiction where the lawsuit is being heard, the respondent will have approximately 30-60 days to record an answer to the accident victim’s complaint in order to be considered timely.
Phase 4: The process of discovery begins. In order to gather the information that could be used as evidence at trial, both sides will request and exchange information. Legal discovery is a few months to complete but can take up to 12 months or more in some instances.
Phase 5: The trial will ensue. A motor vehicle collision court case is typically completed in a matter of days or even hours.
Phase 6: Consider whether to file an appeal. If either of the litigants is disappointed with the result of the trial, they have the right to appeal. There are many levels of appeal that could be considered legally viable. Just 1 level of appeal can add several months to years to the total length of the case. It is also important to remember that other, non-case-related factors may impact the amount of time it takes to settle a case. For instance, some hospital records and bills can take weeks to obtain.
How Do You Prepare To Settle My Personal Injury Case?
Similarly, treating doctors may take up to 30 days to provide the attorney with the client’s medical records and bills. These records and bills are necessary to provide to the insurance company with your settlement demand. Also, the insurance company that is evaluating your claim may impact the length of time it takes to settle a case. The insurance company may request additional documents or have an internal review system that prolongs the evaluation of the case. All of these factors will certainly impact the amount of time it takes to settle.
Please note it is not unusual to go back and forth with settlement offers. This usually happens because time is considered “on the side of the insurance companies” to a certain extent because they are not strapped for cash, and they want you to accept the lowest offer possible. Once you accept a settlement you can live with, the timeline to actually receive a check is usually a few weeks to a few months.
The most important thing to look for in a personal injury attorney is someone who treats and prepares each case as if it is going to trial from the very beginning. Being prepared to go to trial often results in a case being settled sooner rather than later, and, more importantly, it almost always results in the best possible case outcome for the client. Our personal injury attorneys at Tucker Miller Law have more than 35 years of combined experience in the handling and litigation of personal injury cases. You should contact us immediately if you have been injured in an accident because we offer a free initial consultation. Call Now 602-870-5511.
