How Long Does an Auto Accident Settlement Take?
When your life has been turned upside down by a car accident, you just want to get back to normal as fast as you can. That means getting money for your medical bills, time away from work, and other expenses. But how long will it take?
The answer isn’t simple. Securing a settlement could take anywhere from several months to a year or more. Every auto accident case is different, and the timeline depends on multiple factors, including the extent of your injuries and the time needed to recover, as well as the number of parties involved, insurance delays, and the case’s complexity.
The skilled car accident attorneys at Loewy Law Firm can help push your case forward and maintain momentum, ensuring you get the maximum settlement in the shortest time possible.
Setting Realistic Expectations
On average, auto accident cases are resolved in about 1.5 years, but that does not mean your case will necessarily be settled in that time frame. Averages can be misleading because there are always extreme outliers.
Settling claims for crashes that only produce minor injuries can be done in a few months, while more complicated cases with multiple parties, serious injuries, and significant disputes over fault can drag on for years.
To give you a better idea of what to expect, here are some estimated timelines based on case complexity
- Simple cases: Three to six months
- Moderate cases: Six months to a year
- Complex cases: One to three years
These are ranges based on how long it generally takes to settle your claim, not a fixed timeframe. In some more complex cases, although rare, negotiating a fair settlement can take even longer than 3 years.
As difficult as it may be, it pays to be patient in a personal injury case. Eager to get compensated, many people rush to settle their cases too soon and wind up with awards that don’t adequately cover their lost wages or medical bills.
Review the 3-phase process that follows to get a better idea of the timelines and what to expect.
Phase 1: Medical Recovery
Your injuries are critical to your settlement timeline. Before a car wreck case can be settled, you need to recover fully first. Attorneys usually wait to settle a claim until you’ve reached Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI).
MMI refers to the point at which your condition is stable and not likely to improve significantly in the foreseeable future. It’s a medical determination a doctor makes based on a thorough evaluation. MMI is used for disability, insurance, and workers’ compensation. Waiting until MMI ensures that future treatment costs, lost wages, and other damages can be accurately estimated.
How Injury Severity Affects the Timeline
Your recovery time and the delay before you can settle your claim depend on how serious your injuries are. Some injuries heal quickly and predictably. Others may require surgery and extended periods of rehabilitation.
- Minor injuries: Scrapes, cuts, and fractures might stabilize in a few weeks or months.
- Moderate injuries: More serious injuries requiring inpatient surgery can take several months to heal.
- Severe injuries: Debilitating conditions, such as spinal injuries, can hold up a settlement for a year or even longer.
Once you’ve achieved MMI and begin to pursue a settlement, insurance companies will try to minimize the severity of your injuries or how much they have impacted your life. While you’re recovering, you should save all your medical bills and treatment records to help avoid delays.
Phase 2: Claim and Negotiation
After you’re fully recovered, the next phase of the process can begin. The precise timeline may vary depending on the complexity of your case as well as the cooperation of insurance companies and opposing parties. Here are some rough estimates:
- Investigation: Compiling police reports, video evidence, witness statements, medical records, pay stubs, and other documentation typically takesone to eight weeks.
- Demand letter: One to two weeks after you’ve reached MMI, an attorney will write a demand letter to the insurer with a reasonable estimate of the damages owed based on your injuries, losses, and predicted expenses.
- Negotiation: The insurance company will review the demand letter and the evidence, then offer a settlement. If you reject the initial offer, the parties will negotiate until a settlement can be reached. This can potentially take several months.
- Lawsuit: Most claims are resolved through negotiation, but it’s sometimes necessary to go to court if the parties cannot reach an agreement. Litigation can extend the process by one to three years, and sometimes longer.
Insurer Tactics and Responses
Insurers understand that injured people are experiencing hardships. As time passes, there are more and more incentives to take an offer just to cover mounting expenses. By stalling, insurance companies know that they can leverage these financial pressures to get people to settle for less than they deserve.
Some tactics that insurers commonly use include:
- Burdensome document requests: Insurers may try to drown you in paperwork, requesting multiple copies of records or asking for documents one at a time to slow down the process and overload you.
- Disputing their liability: Insurance companies might highlight trivial pieces of evidence to unjustly assign more blame to you for your injuries, lowering the total payout offered.
- Demanding further investigations: Even if most of the basic facts aren’t in dispute, insurers may claim that they need more time to investigate as a delay tactic.
- Questioning treatments: Insurers may comb through medical records or bring in experts to argue that a treatment you received was medically unnecessary and shouldn’t be compensated.
A skilled attorney can counteract stall tactics by:
- Preparing evidence: An auto accident attorney ensures that all documentation is in order, so there are fewer opportunities for the insurer to claim that something is missing
- Quick responses: A good attorney responds to insurers’ counteroffers and requests for records quickly to keep the process moving.
- Filing complaints: A lawyer can identify when an insurer is operating in bad faith under Texas state law and file a complaint or threaten to do so if the insurance company doesn’t comply.
- Start litigation: If the insurance company is not operating in good faith, an attorney can help you seek a resolution in the courts.
Phase 3: Lawsuit and Trial
If you can’t get a reasonable settlement that meets your needs, your car accident lawyer may advise you to file a lawsuit. As we’ve already mentioned, this can draw out the process further, but it’s sometimes the only option to get the compensation you deserve. A lawsuit creates a structure and court-enforced deadlines that the insurance company has to follow.
Here are the primary stages of a lawsuit and how long each takes:
- Filing and service take one to three months.
- Discovery can take six months to over a year, depending on the amount of records that must be exchanged and witnesses that have to be deposed
- Trial typicallyoccurs one or two years after the initial filing if a settlement hasn’t been reached.
Though we always hope to resolve cases without setting foot in a courtroom, the Loewy Law Firm prepares each case as if a trial is inevitable. Building a trial-ready case from the start strengthens our position in negotiations.
Getting the Best Possible Settlement With the Right Team
A car accident settlement should move efficiently without sacrificing value. Loewy Law Firm applies steady pressure on insurers, keeps documentation organized, and builds each case for the best possible result in the shortest practical time.
Call (512) 280-0800 to speak with Adam Loewy about your case. The consultation is free, and the firm charges no fee unless you win.
The content on this website is for general informational purposes and should not be considered legal advice. Laws change, and case outcomes depend on specific facts. Viewing this material does not establish an attorney-client relationship. For legal guidance on your specific situation, consult a qualified attorney.