Another common-asked question is how long will my claim take?  And the answer from the beginning is typically: I don’t know exactly, but I can tell you the parameters that will define how long it will take.

The first part is your medical treatment.  Until your medical treatment is completed, no lawyer can realistically value your case.  We will not know the full extent of your injuries, the type of medical treatment you will be having, whether you will need any surgery, how long you will be under treatment, and, most importantly, whether you get all better or have some degree of permanent injury.

So the first step in determining how long your claim is going to take is how long your medical treatment lasts.  Once your medical treatment ends, that’s when the real work begins for the lawyer.  We then obtain, from your primary treating physician, a final report that tells us all the facts we need.

We then obtain the balance of any missing medical records.  We then put together the demand package and send that to the insurance company.  That typically takes about 60 days after you’ve completed your medical treatment.

The insurance companies all take at least 30 days to reply to that letter.  That is because the adjuster assigned to the matter has to evaluate it.  That evaluation has to be reviewed by her – his or her superior and then typically a Settlement Committee, and then finally, the adjuster is given authority to try to negotiate settlement with your case.  So, typically, 60 days after you finish treatment, we write the demand letter, 90 days we start negotiation.  I give it 30 more days to either settle, which means the insurance company has offered an amount of money that I’m willing to recommend and my client’s willing to accept, or it’s time to start our lawsuit.

Depending on what county you start your lawsuit in and depending whether you have an arbitration case, which is a matter worth less than $50,000.00, or a major case, which is a case worth more than $50,000.00, your wait is anywhere from about eight months to two years for your claim to come up before a judge or jury or an arbitration panel.  However, the entire time, we are still working on your case and trying to settle it before it reaches that point.