If you've been in an accident and are waiting for a settlement, you might be wondering: why is this taking so long? Settling an accident claim is often a lengthy process that can take months or even years.
Let's explore the reasons settlements can drag on and what you can do to help move things along. The most important thing is to stay patient and persistent. Make sure you have an experienced personal injury attorney on your side who will advocate for you.
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The Insurance Company Is Dragging Its Feet
One of the main reasons accident settlements take a long time is that insurance companies drag their feet. They're in no rush to pay out on claims. In fact, it's in their best interest financially to delay as long as possible. Insurance adjusters may take a long time to respond, request unnecessary documentation, or make lowball offers, hoping you'll get frustrated and accept less than you deserve.
Don't let them take advantage of you. Your lawyer can keep the pressure on them to act in a timely manner. Your personal injury attorney can escalate with a lawsuit if they don't negotiate in good faith. Having legal representation shows the insurance company you mean business and won't be taken advantage of.
Maximum Medical Improvement Needs to Be Reached
Another key factor in the length of time it takes to settle a claim is the time it takes for you to reach maximum medical improvement (MMI). MMI means recovering as fully as possible from your accident injuries. You don't want to settle before reaching MMI because then you won't know the full extent and costs of your injuries. If you have ongoing medical needs, your lawyer will wait until you've recovered or your condition is stable to proceed with settlement talks.
This is especially true if you suffered serious injuries that require multiple surgeries, a long rehabilitation, or will cause permanent disability. In those cases, it's best to wait until MMI to fully understand your damages. Your personal injury attorney may also want expert medical opinions to strengthen your case.
Liability Disputes
Disputes over who is liable for the accident can also lengthen the settlement timeline. If the fault is unclear or being debated, it will prolong negotiations. The insurance company may try to shift the blame onto you. Your personal injury lawyer will need to provide strong evidence of the other party's negligence and defend against any claims that you were at fault.
Liability disputes are common in multi-vehicle accidents, as well as in cases with limited evidence. It can be a prolonged battle if there were no reliable witnesses and fault comes down to your word against the other driver's. Your lawyer must dig deep into evidence like accident reports, photos of the scene and vehicle damage, medical records, expert analysis, and more to build a case for liability.
The Legal Process Takes Time
The legal settlement process is slow even if you have a strong case. There are many steps involved, and each takes time. After your initial consultation, your lawyer needs to:
- Gather evidence like police reports, medical records, photos, videos, etc.
- Interview witnesses
- Consult with experts like doctors, accident reconstructionists, actuaries, etc.
- Build your case and damages
- Draft a demand letter to the insurance company
- Negotiate back and forth with the insurance adjuster
If a fair agreement can't be reached, your lawyer may need to file a lawsuit. That opens up a whole other lengthy legal process involving:
- Filing a formal legal complaint
- The discovery phase, where both sides exchange information
- Mediation attempts
- Potentially going to trial
Every step takes time, and the courts move slowly with many cases on the docket. Even if your case seems simple, it must go through the process. Trust that your lawyer is moving things forward as efficiently as possible. Stay involved, and don't be afraid to ask for updates, but understand the legal system is slow.
High-Value Cases Require More Preparation
Larger settlements tend to take longer because they require more extensive evidence and preparation. Insurers will fight harder against high-dollar claims, so your lawyer needs to build an airtight case. The higher the potential award, the more they'll dig in their heels to deny or minimize your claim.
High-value cases may involve permanent disability, disfigurement, inability to work, or long-term care needs. Those serious damages require more evidence to prove the extent of harm and justify the amount needed. Your lawyer must gather substantial documentation and likely work with medical and financial experts. The insurance company will require more to back up a larger claim.
While any amount of money is worth fighting for, insurers will battle more aggressively over big sums. They may drag out the process, dig deeper into finding fault with you, and take a harder line in negotiations. Catastrophic cases are an even bigger deal to them. Be prepared for a longer road with a high-value claim. But don't let that stop you from pursuing what you deserve. An experienced personal injury lawyer will put in the time and effort needed to maximize your compensation.
There Are Multiple Parties Involved
Accident claims become more complex and time-consuming when multiple parties are involved. If several people suffered injuries or if there are multiple potentially liable parties, it will slow the process. More elements come into play, such as:
Which Injured Person's Claim Gets Priority
When multiple people are injured in the same accident, it raises the issue of whose claim is handled first. This can contribute to your case taking longer. The insurance companies involved have to determine the order to process the claims.
There's no set rule on the order of priority. It often comes down to the severity of each person's injuries. The person with the most serious injuries will likely be the top priority. If someone has life-threatening or severely disabling injuries, their claim will probably move to the front of the line.
The insurance company wants to deal with the biggest claims first. This lets them estimate their total potential losses from the accident. It also acknowledges that the most critically hurt need help the fastest.
With multiple injured people, the insurance company also has to split its time and resources. Even with a big insurer, the adjusters are likely working on many claims simultaneously. They can get pulled in many directions, slowing down your claim. Your lawyer's job is to keep them focused on your needs as much as possible.
Additional Insurance Companies Involved
The more insurance companies that get pulled into the case, the more complicated and drawn out it can become. When there are multiple injured people or multiple parties who may be at fault, there are usually several insurance policies in play. Every driver has their own insurance. If a commercial vehicle is involved, their corporate policy is triggered. If fault may fall on an auto manufacturer, municipality, or other third party, that taps their business policies too.
So instead of just dealing with the at-fault driver's single auto insurer, now there may be a web of insurance companies to sort out. There can be a lot of back-and-forth among the insurers before they decide who's paying for what. Sometimes, they'll cooperate, and sometimes, they point fingers at each other. It gets complex quickly.
For you, the key problem is that your claim is at the mercy of the tangled insurance web. Until they iron out their issues, your settlement is in limbo. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do to speed them along. But your lawyer will keep tabs on the situation and press them to keep your priorities front and center. It's best to have a personal injury attorney navigate the insurance maze for you.
Debates Over the Division of Fault Among Parties
When liability is spread among multiple parties, it adds a new wrinkle that can drag out your case. With several entities potentially at fault, now there are debates about how to divide up that fault. Insurers will argue over what percentage of blame each party bears. It can turn into a fierce back-and-forth.
Is the fault split evenly? Does one party shoulder most of the blame, while the others are only liable for a small fraction? Are some parties not liable at all? These are the questions the insurers will battle over.
This is important because it determines what portion of your damages each insurer is on the hook for. If the trucker is assigned 80 percent of the fault, their insurer is responsible for 80 percent of your settlement. But if the trucker's insurer thinks the auto manufacturer is 50 percent liable, they'll fight hard for that. Meanwhile, the manufacturer may say they're only 10 percent responsible. As they duke it out, your claim is stuck in the middle.
These debates are extremely complex and contentious. The insurers will really dig into the evidence and may even bring in expert witnesses for accident reconstruction and engineering analysis. Determining exact fault percentages is not easy, and there's a lot of room for interpretation. The insurers may even take the fight to court.
Having fault split among multiple parties is challenging for your claim. But your lawyer will be prepared for it. If there are several avenues for potential liability, your attorney will pursue them all. They'll bring the full weight of evidence and experts to show how each party is liable for your injuries. Let your personal injury lawyer lead the charge in the fault debate.
More Scheduling Challenges With More People
An accident settlement is a complex process requiring the coordination of many moving parts and people. There are lots of steps involving you, your lawyer, the insurance adjusters, medical professionals, witnesses, court personnel, and others. The more people injured in the crash, the more schedules to juggle. It makes it that much harder to keep the case on track.
For example, to move the ball forward, your lawyer may need to:
- Gather your medical records and bills
- Interview witnesses
- Schedule doctors' depositions
- Consult with experts
- Appear at hearings
- Go to mediation
- Meet filing deadlines
If there are several injury victims, those steps will be multiplied. There are more medical records to track down, more witnesses to chase, and more evidence to process. Everyone is dealing with their own treatment and MMI timeline. A problem or holdup with one person's records or availability can slow the whole process for everyone.
More people means more schedules to coordinate. Your lawyer is trying to book experts and nail down witness testimony. But if the adjuster is swamped juggling the other claims, suddenly something that should have taken a week gets pushed to a month. Trying to schedule a deposition or mediation with multiple parties can take ages.
Unfortunately, delays tend to snowball in multi-party cases. Each step can hit a scheduling snag or a sticking point with another party. It's like a domino effect, and your claim can get stopped in its tracks. Your lawyer's job is to be the cattle prod that keeps all parties moving. But ultimately, you're beholden to other people's calendars.
The key takeaway is that more accident victims mean more scheduling challenges. Through no fault of your own, your case can slow to a crawl. And the courts are already dealing with a backlog of cases. Your lawsuit might be at the back of a long line. All you can do is be patient and responsive to your lawyer's requests. Let them worry about lighting fires under everyone else involved.
Call a Personal Injury Lawyer for Help
If you've suffered an injury in an accident, don't wait any longer to seek legal help. Consultations are free, and injury attorneys work on a contingency basis with no up-front cost to you. You have nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain. Call a personal injury attorney near you today to get started with your claim.