Author: Shelby Benavidez
Contributing Attorney: Michael Cupero, attorney
After an injury, waiting can be one of the hardest parts of a personal injury case. You may have medical bills piling up, missed paychecks, a damaged vehicle, and an insurance company that seems to be moving at its own pace. Naturally, you want to know: How long is this going to take?
Unfortunately, there isn’t one timeline that applies to every personal injury case. Some claims can be settled without ever filing a lawsuit. Others take longer because treatment is ongoing, fault is disputed, multiple parties are involved, or the insurance company refuses to make a reasonable offer.
And when it comes to your case, faster isn’t always better. Settling before you understand the extent of your injuries could mean accepting money before you know what your medical care will actually cost. Once you settle and sign a release, you generally can’t go back and ask for more money because your injuries turned out to be worse than expected.
So, instead of giving you an arbitrary timeline, let’s look at what actually has to happen between the day you’re injured and the day your case is resolved.
What Has to Happen Before We Can Settle Your Personal Injury Case?
1. You Receive Medical Treatment
Your health comes first, but your treatment can also have a major effect on your case timeline. Imagine you hurt your back in a car accident. After several weeks of treatment, you’re still in pain. Your doctor orders an MRI, which reveals an injury that may require injections or surgery.
If you had settled your case two weeks after the crash, that future treatment may not have been accounted for in your settlement. That’s why your attorney will likely recommend waiting until you and your medical provider understand the full extent of your injuries before trying to resolve your claim.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be completely healed. If your injuries are permanent or you will need future treatment, your attorney may work with your medical providers and other experts to understand what that care could look like and what it may cost.
2. We Gather and Preserve Evidence
While you focus on your recovery, your legal team can start investigating what happened and preserving evidence. Depending on your case, that could mean obtaining crash or incident reports, tracking down witnesses, requesting surveillance footage, preserving vehicle data, or gathering photos and videos from the scene. Some of this evidence can disappear quickly. Videos may be overwritten, vehicles may be repaired or destroyed, and witnesses can become harder to locate as time passes.
3. We Learn Your Story and Determine What Your Case May Be Worth
As your case develops, your attorney starts putting together a clearer picture of what the injury has cost you. Some losses can be calculated, such as medical bills and lost wages. Others take time to understand.
Your attorney will get to know who you were before the injury and what has changed since. Maybe you can’t pick up your child, return to the job you had before the accident, play the sport you love, or get through a normal day without pain. If you may need another surgery, ongoing medical care, or can no longer earn what you did before, those losses may also affect the value of your case.
Your attorney will also investigate how much insurance coverage is available. You could have significant injuries and losses, but if the person who caused them has limited insurance coverage and no other source of recovery is available, that can affect how much compensation you can realistically recover.
Once your injuries, losses, available insurance coverage, and the impact on your life are better understood, your attorney is in a much stronger position to determine what your case may be worth and what to demand from the insurance company.
4. We Send a Settlement Demand
Once your legal team has the information needed to evaluate your losses, they’ll send a settlement demand to the insurance company. The demand lays out what happened, why the other party is responsible, how you were injured, and the compensation you are seeking based on the evidence.
Unfortunately, there isn’t one universal deadline requiring every insurer to accept or reject a personal injury settlement demand within the same amount of time. The insurer can either accept the demand, make a counteroffer, or request additional information.
5. We Negotiate With the Insurance Company
Simply because an insurance company didn’t accept your demand doesn’t mean your case is worth less or that you have to accept their counteroffer. Your attorney can (and should) continue negotiating if they believe the insurance company’s offer doesn’t reflect the full value of your case.
If you reach an agreement and choose to accept the settlement, your case may end here. If you don’t, your attorney may recommend filing a personal injury lawsuit.
What Happens After a Personal Injury Lawsuit Is Filed?
Filing a lawsuit doesn’t automatically mean your case will go to trial. Your case can still settle while a lawsuit is pending, and negotiations may continue throughout the litigation process. However, filing a lawsuit lets the insurance company know that if they aren’t willing to offer full value, you’re prepared to keep fighting for it.
Filing and Serving the Lawsuit
Your attorney files the lawsuit with the court. The defendant must then be formally notified and given an opportunity to respond.
Discovery
During discovery, both sides exchange information and gather additional evidence.
This may include requesting additional documents, answering written questions, obtaining records, and investigating the claims and defenses being made by the other side.
Your attorney isn’t simply waiting during this stage. They’re continuing to build your case while also responding to requests from the defense.
Depositions
You, the defendant, witnesses, doctors, or experts may be questioned under oath.
Depositions allow both sides to learn more about what witnesses know and how they may testify if the case goes to trial.
Expert Review
Some cases require experts to address disputed issues.
Depending on the case, that might include medical experts, accident reconstructionists, economists, or professionals who can explain the cost of future care or how an injury could affect someone’s ability to work.
Mediation and Continued Negotiations
Before trial, your team and the defendant may try to settle the case through mediation. During mediation, a neutral third party called a mediator works with both sides to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the case, communicate settlement offers, and see whether there is an amount both sides are willing to accept.
If an agreement is reached, the lawsuit can end without going to trial. If not, your case can continue toward trial. During this time, negotiations can still continue up until the trial date.
Trial
If the parties can’t reach an agreement by the trial date, your team will present the case in court, where a judge or jury can decide issues such as responsibility and damages. Unfortunately, your trial date is at the mercy of the court’s schedule, so even when both sides are ready, you may have to wait for an available date.
Your Case Settled. When Do You Actually Get Paid?
After a settlement is reached, paperwork still needs to be completed. The insurance company will typically require a signed release before issuing payment.
Once your attorney receives the settlement funds, they may also need to address outstanding medical bills, reimbursement claims, Medicare or Medicaid interests, liens, or other amounts that must be resolved before the remaining funds can be distributed.
If your case has settled and you’re waiting on your money, your attorney should be able to explain exactly what still needs to happen before your funds can be released.
There Is No “Normal” Personal Injury Timeline
Two people can be injured in similar accidents on the same day and have completely different case timelines.
One may recover within a few months, have clear evidence showing who caused the accident, and deal with one insurance policy. The other may need surgery, have disputed liability, and discover that several parties and insurance policies are involved.
Giving both people the same estimated settlement timeline wouldn’t be helpful.
At Daniel Stark Injury Lawyers, we believe you deserve to understand what’s happening with your case and why. Your attorney should be able to tell you what they’re working on, what they’re waiting for, and what comes next.
Our goal isn’t simply to settle your case as quickly as possible. It’s to tell your full story, protect you from being taken advantage of by the insurance companies, and fight for the full value of what you’ve lost.
If someone else’s negligence caused your injury, contact a qualified personal injury lawyer for a free case evaluation. An experienced attorney can learn what happened, explain what may affect the timeline of your specific case, and help you understand your options.
Personal Injury Case Timeline FAQs
Does Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer Make a Case Take Longer?
It’s possible, but taking a little longer isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
You could accept an early offer from the insurance company, settle your case quickly, and try to move on. But if you settle before you understand the extent of your injuries, your future medical needs, or what your case may be worth, you could leave money on the table.
A lawyer can’t control how quickly you recover, how fast a hospital sends records, whether an insurance company disputes fault, or when a court has an available trial date. What an attorney can do is keep your case moving while taking the time needed to investigate your losses, understand how the injury has affected your life, and fight for the full value of your case.
Do I have to finish medical treatment before settling my case?
You don’t have to finish treating before settling your case. However, you should have a clear understanding of your injuries and anticipated future medical needs before agreeing to a settlement.
If you settle too early and later learn that you need additional treatment, you generally can’t reopen your claim and ask for more money.
Does filing a lawsuit mean my case will go to trial?
No. Personal injury cases can still settle after a lawsuit has been filed. Negotiations may continue during discovery, after depositions, during mediation, or even as a trial approaches.
