How Long Does a Personal Injury Case Take?

Did you know that there are around 27 million new personal injury claims every year in the United States? Usually, it takes time for injured people to fully recover from their injuries to determine the amount they can claim. This includes money related to medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering. 

Personal injury cases can last from several months to years, depending on the extent of injuries suffered by the injured people. According to https://www.corraleslawgroup.com/, you may feel you can or should only seek legal action if you received a serious injury, but this is certainly not true. Even minor bodily injuries are subject to some financial recompense or a settlement payout, let alone any emotional suffering and psychological trauma.

Let’s find out what your rights are and when to immediately seek legal advice. 

The clock starts with your medical treatment

An individual cannot proceed with an injury case based on a personal trajectory until he or she has reached “maximum medical improvement.” Maximum medical improvement is defined as the endpoint where the person’s condition has become stable and the full extent of the person’s injuries becomes clear.

Settling a case prior to an injured individual’s reaching Maximum Medical Improvement is a common mistake that results frequently in zero compensation for future medical care, lost earning capacity, and permanent impairment.

The duration of this phase varies depending on the types of injuries and the injuries themselves. It may be weeks in simple soft tissue injuries and six months or more where severe traumas are involved. This phase extends when the injuries are in the spine, are traumatic brain injuries, or require surgeries. 

While the attorney is working alone and waiting for the injured party to finish treatment, they will also help preserve information, including accident reports and surveillance tapes; obtain medical records; and identify all responsible parties. The medical or legal duty may not have any shortcuts without the patient or client suffering the consequences.

Pre-Suit Negotiation: Where Most Cases Resolve

When maximum medical improvement is finally reached, it is then that the attorney compiles a demand package: a long, specific letter to the insurer of the person at fault, specifying the nature of the injuries based on medical records, bills, lost wages documentation, and expert opinion regarding future care.

The demand is assessed by the insurer, and a settlement offer is proposed or pushed back against. Nearly 70% of all personal injury claims compromise without ever filing a lawsuit, and many compromise themselves during this pre-suit negotiation period. 

On clear liability and when the adjuster is willing to bargain in good faith, this phase usually closes within as little as a few months. When the insurer does disagree on fault, on the severity of the injuries, or just wastes down the time with tiny, lowball offers that never budge, filing a lawsuit is usually the only option to receive a fair amount.

Filing a Lawsuit Starts a Different Clock

Bringing a lawsuit does not necessarily mean going to trial. Instead, it just means that the case has moved to stations where formal rules apply. According to Gonzales personal injury lawyer Andre P. Gauthier, if you suffered an injury because of an accident that someone else caused, you have rights.

Defendants are given a certain period to reply to the complaint they have received, after which they engage in corresponding discovery. During that time, the litigants will have exchanges of documents, interrogatories in written form, and depositions.

In many cases, discovery is the longest single phase in a personal injury lawsuit. The short cases could finish it within three to six months. Complex cases, involving many defendants, expert witnesses, or disputed medical causation, may have discovery that takes a year or even more. 

Once the lawsuit is filed, the median resolution period is around 13 to 14 months, states a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. By the end of the first year, 44% are settling. More than 74% wrap up in two years. 

Three percent to five percent are the average of cases that ever even get to a jury trial. For those that do, the median time between filing and verdict is about 22 to 23 months.

What Case Type Predicts About Timeline

The type of case is one of the most solid predictors of the length of time it may take to settle a matter but rarely the first consideration. Car accidents are the cases that typically settle fast if the fault is clear, say within six months to two years. 

Slip and falls generally take an average of one to two years to settle, partially due to the high cost of investigation needed to establish that a property owner was aware of an occupier’s hazardous condition. Product liability cases resolve within one to three years. 

Medical malpractice cases take the longest, with an average of two to four years, or often longer. In every case of medical malpractice, expert testimony is required. In many regards, time is added to the stages by the scheduling and retention of other experts to be deposed.

Once the government is in the mix, it has a way of juggling the matter. Such a suit against a city, county, state, or federal agency must be preceded by an advanced notice filing with a very stringent deadline, often as little as one or six months from the date of injury. 

Or else the suit could be dead before it even got to a full hearing on the merits, irrespective of what the general statute of limitations prescribes.

How Insurance Company Behavior Shapes the Timeline

The main external variable within all personal injury cases is the way the insurer handles the settlement. An insurer willing to negotiate in good faith, admit liability clearly, and make reasonable offers would necessarily move the case toward settlement. 

Conversely, one likely to stall, seek further supportive documentation, surmise inappropriately low offers, or dispute clearly documented treatments sets the stage for adding months to each stage of the case.

High-value policies will usually trigger overly stringent defense strategies. Those frequently include the assignment of carriers’ contributors or defense attorneys, whose sole job it is to make certain that the terms of the minimum required coverage are met. 

Whenever a “fair settlement” is not earned early on, filing suit should by no means be regarded as a failure. In a lot of cases, litigation is all that will bring forth some cooperation on settling the matter.

The Deadline That Cannot Be Missed

The statute of limitations varies by state. For personal injury claims, the statute runs from two to three years from the date of injury. This is a firm deadline. 

Any plaintiff filing late, even by one day following the expiration of the statute of limitations, will generally be barred from the court, regardless of the strength of the underlying facts. 

Some exceptions are provided as to the discovery rule for injuries that were not immediately apparent and tolling provisions for minors. But these exceptions are narrow, and it is always taking a risk to rely on them absent legal advice.

What Determines How Long Your Case Actually Takes

Three factors predict the timeline more than any other: 

• How severe the injuries are and how long treatment runs; 
• How clearly liability can be established; 
• Whether the insurer approaches the claim with reasonable good faith. 

Cases with catastrophic injuries, disputed fault, or an insurer in full defense mode simply take longer, and pressuring toward early resolution in those situations typically costs the injured person money.

In the first few days after an accident, the best thing anyone can do is to document everything. Follow the medical advice to the letter and keep track of every bill and impact the injury causes.