Why Is My Accident Settlement Taking So Long?

Are you anxiously awaiting compensation for injuries and expenses and asking, “Why is my accident settlement taking so long?” Various factors influence a settlement timeline. Schedule a free case evaluation with a local personal injury attorney to better answer your questions. You’ll want to bring evidence, including documentation of injuries, economic losses, and anything else that helps prove bodily harm and damages to your initial consultation.

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Injuries and Medical Treatment

The more severe your injuries, the lengthier your medical treatment and recovery will be. These factors significantly influence why your accident settlement is taking so long. Despite the insurance company’s desire to settle quickly to minimize loss, you must wait until hitting your maximum medical improvement (MMI).

Your MMI is when you’ve reached a state where your condition cannot improve further and can only be determined by your doctor. Settling too soon can have the potential consequence of absorbing financial costs associated with your injuries from the accident.

Case Complexity

The complexity of your personal injury case will directly affect your settlement timeline. The more intricate the circumstances, the longer it takes to settle it. Complicated issues in accident cases may arise from factors including:

• Challenges proving the extent of your injuries, such as soft tissue issues, chronic pain conditions, and mental health challenges
• Pre-existing medical conditions or injuries
• Catastrophic injuries
• Complex medical treatments
• Delayed onset of injury symptoms, commonly occurring with whiplash, concussions, traumatic brain injuries, and back, neck, and shoulder pain
• High-value personal injury claims

Accidents involving multiple liable parties can add to the complexity of your personal injury case. Liable insurance companies will attempt to minimize their company losses by negating blame onto other liable insurers. It can slow the settlement process down. These cases typically include truck accidents and chain-reaction car accidents. Speak to an attorney immediately if your case involves multiple liable parties.

Length of Investigation

Lengthy investigations influence why your settlement is taking so long. Cases with overwhelming evidence will take longer. Your lawyer will thoroughly investigate all possible parties of liability, the extent of your injuries and damages, and interview witnesses.

They may also consult with experts, including accident reconstruction specialists, economists, and healthcare professionals. This process can be time-consuming and require some patience on your part.

Liability Disputes

Liability disputes are common when it isn’t clear who is at fault for an accident or in cases of multiple liability. Depending on the nature of your personal injury claim, liable parties may include drivers, trucking companies, rideshare companies, property owners, employers, and municipal governments—those defined as towns, cities, villages, boroughs (except in Alaska), and townships.

Insurance Company Delays

Understand this: insurance companies are not looking out for your interests. They are purely interested in minimizing their company’s financial losses. They employ insurance claims adjusters to do whatever it takes to do that. One of the ways they minimize payouts is by delaying claims by downplaying the severity of injuries and damages.

Legally unrepresented accident victims generally accept the first settlement offer when insurers use delaying tactics. They know this. Additionally, delays can occur because insurance claims adjusters handle countless claims simultaneously, preventing their full attention on your case and slowing them down.

Negotiations With Insurance Companies

Negotiations significantly impact why your settlement is taking so long. Negotiating fair compensation involves back-and-forth exchanges between attorneys and insurers. Each side may present counteroffers during the negotiation process and conduct further investigations to strengthen their case.

It’s common for insurance companies to start small and make attorneys work for fair settlements. You must be patient while your lawyer puts in that work. They will discuss all settlement offers with you before accepting or rejecting them. You have the official say.

Need for Litigation

If your accident claim proceeds to trial, that significantly lengthens how long it takes to get your settlement. Court schedules and proceedings can be time-consuming to the point of adding years to your settlement timeline. Fortunately, lawsuit statistics demonstrate that about 95 percent of pending personal injury lawsuits end in a pre-trial settlement— or only one in 20 will proceed with litigation.

Paying Liens Before Disbursement 

Once your case settles, you must wait a little longer before receiving your settlement. The insurance company doesn’t issue you the check; it goes to your lawyer. This is standard procedure and ensures your attorney collects their contingent fee. They will also pay any healthcare liens placed against your settlement before issuing you final compensation.

How to Speed Up Getting Your Accident Settlement

Injured parties should understand that a settlement takes as long as it takes. This might be frustrating, but various factors influence a settlement timeline, and some things can not be rushed. To speed up receiving your accident settlement, prepare your evidence, hire a personal injury attorney, attend medical appointments, complete your rehab, and keep detailed records and realistic expectations.

Prepare Your Evidence 

Prepare your evidence to bring with you to your free case evaluation. This process saves you personal injury investigation time and helps you assess your case and damages more quickly. Types of evidence you may access to speed the process along include:

• Insurance information
• The police or incident report
• Photographic evidence of your injuries immediately following the accident
• Pictures of the accident scene, including vehicle placement, skid marks, missing road signage, and hazardous road conditions
• Photos of property and vehicle damages
• A written summary of your case facts, including dates, times, and events leading up to your injuries
• Medical records and costs, including hospital discharge papers, medical bills, and receipts for out-of-pocket costs, such as copays and prescriptions
• Proof of lost income
• Vehicle-repair invoices or paperwork documenting it being totaled

Whatever evidence you cannot obtain, your lawyer will secure it. Additionally, they will collect further evidence depending on the nature of your case. For example, truck accidents involve truck inspection and maintenance reports, driver hours of service logs, and truck black boxes or event data recorders (EDRs).

Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer

Don’t attempt to handle insurance claims and legal processes alone. It will most certainly slow down your settlement timeline and may result in having your claim denied. Hire a personal injury attorney to protect your legal rights and handle your case. They are educated and experienced and will demand fair compensation for your injuries and subsequent damages.

Attend Your Medical Appointments

While your personal injury attorney oversees the insurance claims process and legal proceedings associated with your case, you should focus on recovery. That means making and keeping all of your medical appointments.

Your lawyer won’t send a demand letter for damages until you’ve recovered or hit your maximum medical improvement. State jurisdiction defines statutes of limitations on accident cases. Prioritizing recovery is crucial to avoid absorbing future health costs.

Complete Your Rehabilitation 

In many cases, going to your medical appointments is not enough. For example, injured parties who attend physical therapy are given exercises to complete at home between appointments. You must do your rehabilitation exercises to get better.

You must also pay attention to any limitations or restrictions your doctor places on things like bending, lifting, and working. Otherwise, you run the risk of greater injury or prolonging recovery and settlement timelines.

Be Cautious With Communications

Be cautious about communicating with liable insurance claims adjusters. They have one job: to minimize their company’s losses. They may pressure you to give a recorded statement so they can get you to say anything they can use to downplay the severity of your injuries or get you to admit liability.

After retaining a lawyer, they will take over all communications with insurers. Insurance companies will no longer be permitted to contact or harass you so that you can focus on your recovery.

Avoid Posting on Social Media

Insurance companies frequently stalk social media accounts, hoping to find posts they can use to deny liability. Something as innocent as a picture of you smiling at a restaurant enjoying a meal can be twisted to downplay your injury claim. If you are an active poster, they may delay your claim and watch to see if you slip up.

It is best to avoid posting to social media altogether following an accident. Contact a personal injury lawyer immediately if you have already posted, especially about your accident. They will advise you on what to do (and not to do) next.

Keep Detailed Records and Documentation

Pain and suffering or non-economic damages are much more challenging to prove than your economic losses. Proper documentation is vital to securing compensation for them. Keep a consistent, dated, and detailed post-accident journal documenting:

• Physical Acute and Chronic Pain—including time, date, duration, and severity
• Pain Management—including medications, limit activities, massage, and psychotherapy
• Sleep Disturbances—including pain, insomnia, and nightmares
• Emotional Suffering—including distress and mental anguish 
• Psychological Symptoms—post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, anxiety, post-accident depression, and newly-developed phobia relating to your accident
• Limited or Restricted Functioning—inability to perform daily tasks or activities you previously enjoyed

The more consistent and detailed, the better your post-accident journal will establish non-economic damages. Your lawyer may advise you to document other things, such as travel time to and from doctor appointments. Ask them what else may be beneficial to document, specifically for your case.

Keep Realistic Expectations

Set and keep realistic expectations about your accident settlement timeline. It may require exercising patience and trusting your personal accident attorney. There may be times you feel pressured to settle early due to financial hardships incurred from the accident. However, your lawyer knows what is best in these situations. Talk to your attorney and voice concerns about why your accident settlement is taking so long.

Compensation You May Recover In an Accident Settlement

Accidents with severe injuries and substantial damages may take longer to settle. Standard examples of economic and non-economic damages you may recover in a personal injury settlement are as follows:

• Healthcare Costs: Healthcare expenses may involve ambulance transport, EMT services, ER visits, hospitalizations, surgeries, post-op care, primary and follow-up care, medical imaging, diagnostics and devices, physical therapy, massage, chiropractic care, orthopedics, mental health services, prescriptions, and future healthcare costs. 
• Disability Damages: Disability damages may include home and vehicle mobility modifications, as well as involve compensation for spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), chronic pain, amputation, paralysis, hearing or vision impairment, and the need for and cost of assistive devices. 
• Property Damages:  Property damages include vehicle repairs, replacements, rental cars, and rideshare services required while you are without a vehicle. They may also entail personal property damages, such as fences, mailboxes, garden and landscaping, and structure damages. 
• Household Services: Household or domestic services are hired to help required to perform daily tasks your injuries prohibit you from completing, such as housecleaning, cooking, childcare, yard maintenance, and delivery services, like groceries and prescriptions. 
• Lost Earnings: All income losses sustained in your accident, such as lost wages, salary, tips, commissions, overtime, bonuses, health benefits, retirement 401(k), pension, sick leave, vacation days, paid time off (PTO), future earnings or diminished or lost earning capacity. 
• Pain and Suffering: Your intangible losses include pain and suffering, sleep disturbances, psychological trauma, loss of companionship and society, permanent impairment or disability, damaged reputation, cognitive issues, worsening of existing conditions, shortened life expectancy, and loss of consortium.

To ensure maximum compensation, provide evidence of all financial or economic losses to your personal injury attorney. This may include medical bills, bank statements, lost earnings statements, and receipts for out-of-pocket costs.

Consult a Personal Injury Lawyer

Schedule a free case evaluation with a personal injury attorney if you have been injured or experienced the loss of a loved one due to someone else’s negligence or intentional harmful act. You may be entitled to recover substantial financial compensation.

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Jeff Robinette( West Virginia Personal Injury Attorney )

Jeffery Robinette was admitted to practice law in 1991 and is licensed in all levels of state and federal trial courts in West Virginia. Mr. Robinette is also licensed in all state and federal appeals courts in West Virginia and the United States Supreme Court. As a National Board Certified Trial Attorney who has handled hundreds of motor vehicle, injury, and construction defect claims and a leading author on insurance claims settlement issues and difficulties in West Virginia, Jeff Robinette is uniquely qualified to represent your best interest.