How Long Will It Take My Personal Injury Case To Settle?

For accident victims living with pain, expenses and perhaps an unknown future, the added stress of a personal injury claim can be overwhelming. Worrying about paying bills and attending doctor appointments can be more than enough without discovery and court appearances.

For all parties involved, the sooner your case closes, the better. Settlement of a personal injury case brings a sense of closure and completeness to an often difficult and painful moment in life. However, many aspects of personal injury litigation are out of your control as well as your lawyer’s. Why?

Your case is slow because healing is slow. If your injuries are not yet healed, then the full spectrum of your costs are still unknown. What happens if your condition worsens? If you require additional surgery? What about future rehabilitation? It is in your best interest to know, as much as possible, the full spectrum of your healing costs before a final dollar amount can be assessed and your case closed. This may be a lengthy process, but it is the only way you can ensure that your compensation will be fair and complete.

Insurers do not like to pay out money. As for-profit businesses, their major responsibility is to their shareholders, not to their customers. The slower they can move and the less money they pay out in claims, the more money they have retained for their own interests and those of their shareholders. If your insurance company is not offering fair compensation, then you wait for the court system. The insurance company has time and will count on delays. A case becomes more difficult to prove the longer it draws out. Waiting for the Court is its own headache. Chalk it up to lack of courtroom space, lack of court clerks and lack of judges. Add to that the fact that civil cases are heard after criminal or family cases. The time between the initial scheduling of a case and the time it is actually heard can be two years. This is why it is a more appealing outcome to get a fair compensation as a settlement outside of court.

Then we have the reality of the mountains of paperwork involved in a court case. The sheer amount of data that needs to be requested, accumulated, read and properly filed can be extremely time consuming. Whether it is information that needs to be obtained by police departments, insurance companies, doctors or hospitals, securing and assimilating the appropriate paperwork can be a long, slow, grinding machine.

The complexity of your case can also add to its timeline. If there are multiple parties involved, it will add to the time it will take to settle. These cases most frequently need to be tried and settled together and the coordination of this can be staggering.

If you have been injured in an accident and need evaluation of your case, call the team at B & P Injury Law Office. With many years in the personal injury law field in Collingwood, North Bay, Sarnia and surrounding areas, we will ensure that you will get the compensation you are entitled to. Call today for a free consultation.