How Long Will a Personal Injury Claim Take to Settle?

After suffering a serious injury, taking on a challenging legal claim feels overwhelming. Still, when someone else’s negligence, recklessness, or wrongdoing caused the injury, the injury victim shouldn’t have to be left to deal with the financial repercussions as well as the physical pain and often temporary or permanent disability, scarring, and other adverse consequences.

Fortunately, hiring a Kent personal injury attorney frees the injury victim to focus on their physical and emotional recovery while an attorney focuses on their financial recovery.

When injury-related expenses quickly escalate, it’s important to have an idea of how long your personal injury claim might take before you receive your settlement. Contact us at Caffee Accident & Injury Lawyers if you’ve been injured and want to seek compensation. 

Understanding the Personal Injury Claim Process

No two personal injury claims are exactly the same, just as no two injuries are identical or have the same impacts on the injury victims. Understanding how long your personal injury claim may take requires knowing how the process works.

The personal injury claim process typically proceeds as follows:

• After the accident or incident, an injury victim gathers evidence like photos, videos, eyewitness contact information, and their medical report detailing the injury, treatment recommendations, and prognosis
• Most injury victims seeking compensation hire an experienced attorney to file their claim
• The personal injury lawyer handles all communication with the defendant and their insurance company
• The attorney investigates the accident and compiles evidence of the responsible party’s negligence to prove their liability for damages, like medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering
• The personal injury lawyer calculates damages by reviewing medical bills, consulting with medical experts to determine an amount of compensation for future medical costs, and assessing the financial impacts of lost earnings and benefits
• Using a formula based on medical expenses, the attorney determines an amount of compensation for pain and suffering
• The attorney sends their findings to the insurance company in an evidence-based demand package
• Negotiations begin between the insurance adjuster and the attorney, sometimes requiring mediation
• The attorney, injury victim, and insurance company arrive at an ample settlement agreement

Most personal injury claims (nearly 95%) are resolved with a settlement; however, if the insurance company denies the claim or undervalues it, refusing to offer an acceptable settlement, the injury victim and their attorney may choose to move forward with a lawsuit.

How Long Does the Personal Injury Claim Process Usually Take?

Depending on the complexity of the case, the availability of evidence, and the insurance company’s compliance, most personal injury cases reach a settlement agreement between six months and three years after the date the injury occurred.

Washington’s statute of limitations for taking a personal injury case to court in a lawsuit is three years from the date of the accident. This is a more generous time limit than most states, which only allow two years. 

If a personal injury case isn’t resolved with a settlement, the case goes to court in a lawsuit as long as the injury victim (plaintiff) files the petition within three years of the injury date.

Court cases take longer than obtaining a settlement, but juries are often sympathetic to injury victims and decide in their favor with large jury awards. For this reason, most insurance companies capitulate with a settlement rather than go to court.