Issues that can stretch the settlement time for personal injury cases
The first question that people ask about personal injury claims is the time it takes for settlement. The time for settlement depends on how soon your personal injury lawyer can convince the insurance company about accepting your claim that depends on various factors, which are often complex and take time to sort out the issues. In your eagerness for faster settlement, you might opt for accepting a lesser amount of money, but then you are giving up your legitimate dues.
Looking closely at the procedure of settling claims should help to understand why it might take a longer time than usual for settlement and why you should think carefully before accepting a lower compensation.
Reasons for delay in personal injury cases
Personal injury cases can keep stretching beyond the standard timelines for three reasons.
- During the case, problematic factual legal issues might crop up that no one could foresee.
- The case involves a big sum of money that calls for a closer examination of details involving several parties and external experts.
- The medical treatment takes a long time for the victim to recover enough from the injuries to reach a point of maximum medical improvement which signals that it is time to settle the claim.
These cases will take a longer time to settle unless you are ready to accept much lower compensation.
Read Also – Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer
Problematic issues
Arriving at a monetary value for the compensation and establishing a solid personal injury case depends on determining the liability or who was at fault and the extent of damages undergone by the plaintiff. When multiple witnesses speak differently, it creates a problem as it becomes hard to prove who was at fault. The insurance adjuster would like to offer lesser compensation to settle the case quickly unless the plaintiff is ready to take the fight to court by filing a lawsuit for personal injury, which will take a much longer time to conclude. However, it would involve a lot of extra work like hiring liability experts to fix the fault with the defendant.
The case involves big money
When the claim amount is very high, it will take a longer time to settle because the insurance companies would not accept the claim easily unless doing due diligence to verify every fact of the case. The insurance company would try to undermine your claim as much as possible, and only when they find that they do not have any strong defense and there is no way that they can suspect your credibility that with much reluctance would they proceed to settle the claim.
Not reaching the point of Maximum Medical improvement
The claimant settlement happens only when you have completed the medical treatment or reached the point beyond which further improvement is not possible. To get the fair compensation that you deserve, you must wait to reach the point of maximum medical improvement when you can draw a line to conclude the case.
However, if you desperately need the money quickly and waiting is not possible then, you can negotiate with the insurance adjusters to seek the nest settlement. It will be much less than your legitimate claim.