Once We Settle A Case, It's Settled.
In this article, I want to talk about how long your injury case will take. So, I got a call from a person yesterday who asked me this question.
She kind of knew how injury cases worked in a general sense. But wanted to know like how long her case would take. So, here's the brass tax let's get right down to it. Everyone wants their case to be over quick. Everyone wants to have their case resolved quickly without hassle. I do everything in my power at my Law Firm, to do that for people in fact about 90% of my case is settled.
The vast majority of those settle in less than a year so we are very aggressive about getting the cases done. Some offices are less aggressive, some offices immediately file a lawsuit. I don't think that just stretches the case out of that.
Otherwise, might be a case that could settle so what do you need to know about how long your case will take? Well, the number one thing you have to keep in mind is once we settle an injury case the case is over, in other words, we can't go back and ask for more money later. Whether it's a work injury, a car crash, a dog bite, nursing home abuse, whatever it is when we settle the case and sign.
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Once we release or sign the settlement papers, then the case is over for that amount of money, and that’s it. So, because that’s the case, we have to keep in mind that it’s really important to make sure we know all of your injuries and we have to know what your medical outcome is. Now, the majority of cases, the medical outcome is that you get better, or you get close enough to better where maybe your life’s a little bit harder. But you’re able to do things but what happens in circumstances where I had a client who needed a surgery and against my judgement, he said if I didn't settle his case for the offer on the table, he would fire me.
And I talked to him and I explained what I'm explaining to you, that it's a bad idea to settle your case before your medical outcome or you reach what's called the maximum medical improvement.
Surgery Happened Again
So, this guy wanted to settle this case because they built in money for his surgery for his leg surgery. I had him sign things up and down and sideways, I even encouraged him to go get second opinions from other lawyers because any ethical lawyer would say the same thing. There may be some unethical ones out there who will just want to collect the money and won't really care, but in my case, I didn’t want this guy to settle his case. Why? Because I wanted to know what his outcome from the surgery would be.
There are three possibilities with his leg surgery, either the doctor miraculously fixes him and he's better than new or it doesn't help them at all, and he needs another surgery, or maybe multiple surgeries or it makes him worse. Now, admittedly that outcome it’s more likely a surgery is really going to help you. But, I'm your lawyer, I have to protect you including protecting you from yourself, which is why I take pains to explain all this stuff to Injured people.
They know what's what right step, so with this guy, he had the surgery and then he needed another surgery. After he collected all the money, he called me like three or four months later and said “Oh, my doctor says I need another surgery. Is there anything we can do?” And I told him “Nope, there's nothing we can do because I even brought up a lawsuit loan.” I told him, “Look, if it's an issue of you needing money because you're pinched for money, don't settle your case just because you're pinched for money.” But none of that he didn't want to take a lawsuit loan, he wanted his money. He understood he signed off; I wrote him a two-page explanation that I made him sign and then sure enough three four months later he calls me back and says his leg is worse and he needs another surgery.
Once the case is settled, the case is settled. The point is until we know you're better or until the doctor tells you you're not going to get any better. Once we know that, then we'll know what your maintenance medical for the future will be, will know what the repercussions are for your employment like, “Can you keep doing the same job?” Then, I can sort of evaluate the value of the case and not before then so there's lawyers out there who are desperate to get you to sign on the dotted line and hire them and they're going to tell you, “Oh, it's a great case, we'll wrap it up in three months, we're going to get you a million dollars.” You, and then it doesn't work out that way right, so any lawyer who tells you that kind of thing you can't really trust.
So, how long will your case take? Well, I've settled a case in less than 30 days, and I've had cases that were litigated for years and years. Most of my cases settle sooner than that, but the main thing for you to know is that until you hit a plateau or until you're done going to the
Doctor, it would be a mistake for us to try and settle your case. So, that may give you some idea if you go to the doctor for three months and tell me you're done. I order all your medical, so I may very well have an offer and have your case settled in three months after that sometimes 30 days-60 days sometimes longer, so I hope that information helps you sort of gauge how difficult a question is how long your case might take to finish.
If you or a loved one has been involved in a car accident, fall down, dog bite, bar fight, work injury, nursing home abuse, or any kind of injury case, and your loved one needs advice or help please don't hesitate to contact me. You may reach me at 312 500 4500 24/7 free consultation.
