One of the most common concerns for a personal injury lawyer dealing with clients is how long the process is going to take, resolving the personal injury claim is something they want to get out-of-the-way and get on with their lives. But the question of how long does it take to resolve a personal injury claim depends ally upon the situation and circumstances surrounding your claim.
A personal injury lawyer can only give you their estimate of how long it may take to close your case. The time it may take changes from case to case, and there are usually three similar factors that can impact how much time is going to be needed to handle your claim.
However, before we get too deeply into the three factors, you must file your injury claim within two years of the date of the accident that caused your injuries or you will be unable to claim compensation for your injuries. Your personal injury lawyers are going to be able to remind you of the statute of limitations and help you ensure that all paperwork is filled out appropriately and on time.
Remember, the sooner you file your claim, the better chance your injuries are going to be able to be more easily linked to your accident, and strengthen your claim.
Determining the extent of damages to be salt is the first step of a personal injury case, and that is essentially deciding how much compensation you need and will be seeking when it comes to your injury damages. Therefore your lawyer must work with other experts to thoroughly evaluate the impact that your injury or injuries have had on your life, they will even look at current and future medical costs, as some injuries do have lifelong medical cost. Furthermore they will also look at losses to your income in both current and future trends, and they will look at the extent your life has suffered because of your injuries that you received due to someone else’s negligence.
This is one of the most important variables in determining how long your case will take to settle, because the more complex the injuries, the more thorough the investigations and estimates have to be.
The second step is negotiating a claim, and this is basically haggling. Neither party is willing to move towards the middle when you first start the process, and your personal injury lawyer is going to have a lot of experience in negotiating or your outcome. You can do this in a couple of ways, from writing a demand letter where you ask for more than you are reasonably wanting to receive, and from there the haggling begins. Because you are asking for more than you want anyway, when the insurance adjuster comes back and argues that the claim is not strong, or that you are claiming certain costs that you should not be claiming, your lawyers are going to turn around and refute those claims. And eventually, you are going to reach a middle ground to what you first asked for in your lawyers going to tell you whether to accept or not.
Resolving your claim is the last major factor and it determines how long the personal injury claim is due to the finalization. Obviously you can resolve your claim by accepting a settlement offer, or you can take at the trial and seek a verdict. Settlement is going to be quicker than a trial, however you may receive more if you go to trial.
