How Long Do Personal Injury Settlements Take?

If you’ve been hurt in a car collision, boat crash, or slip-and-fall accident, life may have suddenly become much more stressful — and expensive. You’re likely facing costly medical treatment, pricey property repairs, emotional distress, and perhaps even long-term disability. If you’re unable to work, you may wonder how you’ll make ends meet.

An experienced Palm Bay personal injury attorney can help you file a claim for financial compensation. But how long does a personal injury settlement take? While it’s impossible to predict the exact length of your specific case, many take anywhere from a couple of months to several years to resolve. 

This post covers what you need to know about personal injury timelines, including the steps to settle a case and the factors affecting claim duration. 

What Is a Personal Injury Claim?

Personal injury claims seek compensation for harm caused by someone else’s negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct. The following types of accidents often lead to legal claims:

• Car crashes
• Truck accidents
• Motorcycle collisions
• Boat and personal watercraft accidents
• Bicycle crashes
• Slip-and-fall accidents
• Workplace injuries
• Swimming pool accidents
• Medical malpractice cases
• Product liability cases (defective and dangerous products)

Personal injury claims in Florida usually conclude in one of two ways. Either the accident victim settles with the insurance company or they file a lawsuit, at the end of which a judge or jury decides the compensation.

The Personal Injury Lawsuit Timeline

Before answering, “How long does a personal injury settlement take?” it’s important to understand the steps in a personal injury claim. 

1. Documenting the Accident Scene

While you may not be thinking about it at the time, your legal case starts at the accident scene. Once you’ve moved to safety, call 911 to notify law enforcement. A police report can serve as valuable evidence for your claim.

If you’re not too seriously injured, take photos and videos of the damage and request the contact details of any witnesses. A critical step after an accident is seeking immediate medical attention for your injuries, even if you feel fine. This helps protect your health while demonstrating the link between your injury and the accident.

2. Consulting an Attorney

Before you sign any insurance documents or agree to make a recorded statement, find a local personal injury attorney. Many accident lawyers offer free consultations. At this time, the attorney will assess the merits of your case, answer any questions you have, and recommend the next steps to move forward.

Once you hire a lawyer, they will communicate with insurance companies, help you navigate the legal system, protect your rights, and advise you on what to do (and what not to do) to strengthen your claim.

3. Investigating the Accident

During this phase, your attorney will actively gather evidence. They will review anything you collected at the scene, examine your medical records, secure a copy of the police report, and visit the accident scene themselves.

Your legal team will also look for additional proof of the other party’s negligence, including surveillance footage, dashcam video, or vehicle maintenance records. They may hire industry consultants to reconstruct the accident or explain the severity of your injuries.

4. Filing the Claim

Using the evidence gathered during the investigation phase, your attorney will send a demand letter to the at-fault party’s insurer. This notifies them of your intent to seek compensation before officially taking legal action. 

Florida has a statute of limitations of two years for the majority of personal injury cases. If you don’t file your claim within this timeframe, you typically lose the right to seek compensation. However, there are some exceptions, which your attorney can discuss with you.

5. Conducting Discovery

During the discovery process, the opposing sides exchange evidence and investigate disputed facts. This helps prevent surprises at trial and gives attorneys the chance to prepare.

Common discovery methods include requesting documents, having the other side submit to physical or mental evaluations, and conducting depositions to learn what witnesses will say in court. The discovery phase of the lawsuit often takes between six and 12 months. 

6. Negotiating a Settlement

During settlement negotiations, the two sides attempt to agree on fair compensation. After reviewing the evidence and your demand letter, the opposing party may accept your offer. However, they may also send a counteroffer or reject the claim outright.

The negotiation process often goes back and forth because insurers typically want to minimize payouts. However, your attorney wants to seek an amount that adequately covers your physical, mental, emotional, and financial losses. Sometimes, mediation or arbitration with a neutral third party is necessary. The negotiation phase can add several months to the timeline.

7. Going to Trial

Usually, neither side wants to go to trial. The court process is expensive, time-consuming, and stressful for everyone. However, if the other side doesn’t offer an adequate settlement, your attorney must be ready to represent your interests in court.

Depending on where in Florida your lawyer files your case, a trial date may take several months or a year to schedule. Once started, the case may last days or weeks, depending on complexity. After both sides have presented their evidence, the judge or jury will decide how much compensation (if any) to award.

Factors Affecting How Long Cases Take To Settle

So, how long does a personal injury settlement take? A more informative question is, “What factors determine how long a personal injury settlement takes?” The following considerations can shorten or lengthen the amount of time your case requires.

The Nature of Your Injuries

Cases involving minor injuries like muscle strains or simple bone fractures are typically more straightforward. Your medical expenses are likely to be limited, your recovery period short, and your lost income minimal. A quick insurance settlement may be sufficient to cover your costs.

More severe injuries, however, tend to produce lengthier cases. That’s because you don’t want to settle a claim before you know your total costs, and you can’t know your total costs until you know when you will recover. Also, higher-value cases often make it more difficult to reach an agreement.

In the case of catastrophic injuries like the following, it may take years to resolve your claim:

• Traumatic brain injuries
• Spinal cord damage
• Loss of limbs
• Severe burns or scarring
• Internal organ damage

Your Recovery Period

Your attorney will likely advise you to avoid settling your claim until you reach MMI, or maximum medical improvement. MMI is the point where your condition has stabilized and is unlikely to improve — even with further treatment. 

That’s why extended recovery periods can lead to extended lawsuit timelines. If you are short on funds, you may be tempted to accept an early settlement. But if you settle before you heal, you are less likely to receive the full value of your claim.

Once you have reached MMI, your attorney will confer with medical providers and financial consultants to estimate your future medical costs and lost wages. They will add this to your past injury expenses to calculate the total damages.

Disputes Over Liability

When answering, “How long does a personal injury settlement take?” another key factor is liability. To secure damages from another party, you must generally prove that they were negligent. Cases with clear evidence of fault typically conclude more quickly than those involving major liability disputes.

However, if there is insufficient proof of liability, investigations and negotiations may take longer. Sometimes, there isn’t enough evidence; other times, the evidence conflicts (such as witness statements that say two different things).

In these cases, the two sides may be at odds regarding who was at fault, which makes it hard to agree on a settlement amount. You may have to go to trial and let a jury decide.

Disagreements About Damages

Even if liability is clear, the two sides may not agree on the correct amount of financial compensation for your losses. Past medical expenses and vehicle repair costs are relatively easy to prove with receipts and invoices. However, not all damages are so clear.

For example, the other side may not agree with your team’s calculation of future medical expenses or lost wages. Challenges include estimating how likely your injury is to be permanent, the unpredictability of future medical costs, and conflicting professional opinions.

The value of non-economic damages is even more open to interpretation. The injured party and the responsible party may not agree on a monetary value for subjective losses like psychological trauma, severe disfigurement, or decreased quality of life. 

The Complexity of the Case

As you might expect, more complicated cases take longer to settle than simple cases. What determines the complexity of a case?

• Type of personal injury claim: A straightforward auto accident between two people is often simpler to resolve than a medical malpractice case involving complex health issues, advanced medical terminology, and technical witness testimony.
• Type and number of defendants: Cases involving multiple defendants (such as multi-car pile-ups), government entities (like cities and states), or big businesses (such as trucking companies with many employees, contractors, and vendors) may be more challenging to investigate and litigate.
• Shared liability: Florida law uses a modified comparative negligence rule. This means you can still seek partial compensation if you were partly at fault for the accident (as long as you are 50% or less to blame). When multiple parties share liability, the case can take longer to sort out.

Cooperation Between Parties

Some parties are more willing to settle because they know the accident was their fault, or they may want to avoid the expense, hassle, or publicity of a trial. Other defendants refuse to negotiate, dragging out the legal process.

Insurance company cooperation can speed up or slow down the settlement negotiation. Some claims are relatively hassle-free and settle swiftly. However, if the liable party’s insurer denies the claim, makes lowball offers, or keeps stalling negotiations, it can extend the timeline.

Whether Your Case Goes to Trial

The final element affecting settlement timelines is whether or not your case goes to trial. While it’s often better to settle out of court, uncooperative parties, strained negotiations, or conflicting accusations of negligence may necessitate a trial.

Depending on where your case is filed and how much evidence is presented, a personal injury trial could add weeks, months, or years to your lawsuit.

How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help You

Although the majority of personal injury cases settle out of court, an attorney can help you every step of the way. Without legal representation, you will be at a distinct disadvantage in settlement negotiations with powerful insurance carriers.

Experienced personal injury lawyers are skilled negotiators who understand insurance company tactics and will fight aggressively for your interests. What else will your attorney do?

• Guide you through the legal process
• Gather evidence to build a strong case, including interviewing witnesses
• Estimate the value of your claim, including economic damages (like medical care and lost wages) and non-economic damages (like emotional distress and pain and suffering)
• File paperwork on time with the correct court
• Fight for you in court if your case goes to trial
• Protect your rights and offer legal advice throughout the process

When you don’t feel well, the last thing you want to do is worry about legal procedures. Hiring an attorney relieves stress in the aftermath of an accident, allowing you to focus on your recovery.

Need Help With a Florida Personal Injury Claim? Contact Us Today!

Now that you know the answer to “How long does a personal injury settlement take?” are you ready to move forward with your claim? If so, the experienced attorneys at Alpizar Law Firm can guide you through the proper steps.

Whether you need assistance negotiating medical bills, want to know whether to accept a settlement offer, or just have questions about your case, we are standing by to assist you. Our Brevard County personal injury lawyers have over 65 years of combined experience.

Call 321-676-2511 today to schedule a free case evaluation with a knowledgeable accident attorney.