Injury case settlement timelines can have a broad variance. Someone with minor injuries might find their case is settled within a few weeks or months. Meanwhile, it's possible for major injury cases to continue for years before they receive a complete resolution.
Waiting for an injury settlement can test your patience when it's already running thin. Watching medical costs and household bills accumulate while you're out of work and in pain is frustrating and frightening. But, it's typically best to avoid caving to an insurance company's first low-ball offer.
Taking a deeper look at why settlement timelines can vary helps you prepare to make sure that each detail of your case is handled appropriately. Knowing what you can do to make the process go smoothly also helps you feel more in control of a challenging situation and get the best possible outcome for your case.
Understanding Variations in Injury Severity
Minor soft-tissue injuries typically follow a fairly predictable pattern for healing with expectations for a full recovery. For instance, whiplash is a common car accident injury that usually resolves within a specific amount of time. While you can expect to be unable to do certain things during this time, insurance companies can prepare a settlement offer based on typical timelines and medical costs that should end once you heal.
Meanwhile, severe spinal injuries or the loss of a limb could cause lifelong pain and suffering. You may also not be able to fully regain your abilities, which means that a settlement might need to include compensation for future loss of income and ongoing medical care. Many people with these types of severe injuries need complex types of care, such as in-home nursing services, long-term physical therapy, and multiple surgeries that could take place over several years.
Serious personal injury cases may also be incapable of reaching a fair settlement until the full extent of the medical damages is revealed. Medical and legal professionals often wait for a patient to reach their maximum medical improvement (MMI). At this point, the person's condition is stabilized, and any further treatment isn't expected to make a significant improvement in their overall condition.
Reaching this point can finally allow insurance companies, lawyers, and other parties that are involved in the settlement process to have a better idea of what compensation a person needs. Achieving MMI is often a significant marker in workers' compensation injury cases, since it can indicate whether a person will have permanent disabilities.
Keep in mind that MMI doesn't mean that medical care ends. Instead, it represents more of a plateau, since some people may need ongoing healthcare services such as physical therapy or at-home care.
Dealing with Insurance Delays and Denials
Insurance companies have a financial incentive to strive to provide the lowest settlements possible. With minor injuries, an insurance company might call you with a settlement offer fairly quickly in the hopes that you'll accept without knowing the full extent of your injury or your rights.
But an insurance company might use delay tactics to inspire a sense of desperation. Making you wait weeks or months could be a tactic that an insurance company uses to make you feel financial pressure to accept an offer to avoid having bills go to collections. While staring at mounting debt is stressful, it's important to avoid accepting a settlement offer without talking to a professional personal injury lawyer first.
Lawyers can take a look at the details of your case and review your medical history to identify possible options for compensation that might not be included in an insurance company's initial offer. Talking to a lawyer can also help you to plan for long-term care needs and dispute an initial claim denial.
Filing an insurance claim is often the first step that people take after having an accident, and it's common to see it denied almost immediately. Many times, an insurance company will try to claim that a person was at fault for their injury. Or, the insurance company may say that you didn't follow the appropriate timeline for filing a claim.
Injury lawyers can help you, even if the insurance company initially denies your claim. Providing documentation of your injuries and the events that led to the incident can help you move your case forward after an initial denial.
Navigating Complex Cases and Potential Litigation
Many injury cases aren't as simple as filing a claim against one at-fault driver in an accident. Instead, you might face a case that has multiple parties involved, which could add complexity to insurance coverage and other financial obligations.
For example, you might have an injury that occurred while you were using equipment on the job. Naturally, you'll file a claim with your employer for your injury at work. But the manufacturer of the equipment or distributor could be part of a case if it's possible that a faulty product led to your injury.
As you might suspect, cases with multiple parties involved can quickly get complicated. As a general rule, you can expect these to take longer to settle due to the need to potentially file lawsuits and go through the legal system.
If you can't settle a case with the insurance company or a single party, then it's often necessary to go to court. Once a lawsuit is filed, the litigation process can further extend the timeline for handling a case. Court schedules and needing to follow specific steps for the litigation process can all add more time to reaching a final compensation agreement.
Time seems to move slowly when you are in pain and struggling with your daily activities. But every minute counts when it comes to building a strong personal injury case that represents your true needs and costs.
While it might be hard to wait, this is the ideal time to lean on your lawyer and other sources of support. Focusing on healing, providing updates about your medical progress, and following your treatment plan all help you stay strong while you wait for your personal injury settlement.
