Why is my lawyer taking so long to settle my case? The most common thing injured people think. Here are some answers for you.
No matter how you or a loved one got hurt, it can be nerve wracking to have to wait. "why is my lawyer taking so long to settle my case?" and "it is taking a long time, is my case messed up? will i lose?" are the two natural and moral questions.
The good news is that most of the time, these cases take time, and there is just not much that can be done. Everyone has heard the old saying, "The wheels of justice turn slowly". And it means that you have to trust your injury lawyer and be patient, often during a time in your life when it is hard to wait.
Good News
Mostly, lawyers diligently move cases forward. They fight delay tactics by insurance companies and defense lawyers. That is probably the number one, overarching reason why you might be urging your lawyer to just "hurry up and settle my case!"
The number one reason why your lawyer cannot get your case settled is insurance companies and the profit motive. Insurance is involved in almost every injury case. Insurance companies fight injury cases for a lot of reasons, but the purpose is the same: to save money and make more profits.
The more they delay, the more people give up, and the more interest they make on their investments. It is the number one reason why cases do not settle faster, and your lawyer isn't responsible for it. Heck, he or she fights against this reality every day.
Do Not Forget Your Lawyer's Contingency Fee
Remember that lawyers have no reason to delay your settlement. Most injury lawyers have a 'contingency fee'.
That means the lawyer doesn't get paid until after you get paid. So there is no economic or common-sense reason why a lawyer would slow down your settlement. In fact, we usually want to speed things up.
There are different things that delay different kinds of cases, so I wanted to give you more details. Here are the most common reasons why cases can be delayed.
Car Accident Cases
If how the accident happened and who is at fault are disputed, that can slow down a case settlement. If your car accident resulted in injuries and you delayed going to the doctor, that makes insurance want to fight, and it can slow the case down.
Another common reason why car accident cases can be slow to settle is that if there are multiple parties in the case, the insurance company doesn't want to settle until all people injured in the crash have been identified. In these circumstances, they will want to wait until the Statute of Limitations has passed. They do not want to pay out all of the insurance money and later discover another injured person has no injury claim.
Lastly, if you have not gone to the doctor, your lawyer probably wants to know what your injuries are and how bad they are before settling. This is a good idea because once a case is settled, you usually do not get to go back and ask for more.
Work Injuries
Everything in a workers comp case is determined by how much money you make per hour and how serious and permanent your injury is. There are a few different ways your injury lawyer can argue that your injury is serious.
For example, how high are the medical bills? How long were you under medical care? Did you recover, and were you able to go back to do your old job? Or did you have to switch jobs.
No matter what, at settlement or trial, the Arbitrator or Judge will award you some percentage of "Permanent Total Disability". That number should accurately reflect your ongoing problems, and the higher it is, the more your case is worth.
So the number on thing to remember when you are wondering "Why Is My Lawyer Taking So Long To Settle My Case?" is that your lawyer shouldn't settle your case unless you are at MMI. Reaching MMI means you are as good as the doctors can make you.
Settling a Workers' Comp case before that is risky, because if you settle, and need more treatment later, you are usually out of luck. But waiting to have a good read on a work injury can delay the settlement.
Nursing Home and Medical Malpractice
Both of these kinds of injury cases are extremely complex. They require ordering a lot of medical records and thoroughly analyzing them.
Then, we send them out for a medical opinion from one or more doctors. This is necessary because we usually need an expert witness to explain how the doctor or nursing home messed up and how that resulted in you or your loved one getting injured.
Finding an expert, assembling all of the information, and having it reviewed is very expensive and time-consuming. This can delay a settlement.
Slip and Fall
Getting hurt in a fall is embarrassing and when the case has been going on for a while, it is easy to become uncertain and wonder, "why is my lawyer taking so long to settle my case?" However, the nature of fall cases is that we need a lot of information to evaluate them. Far more than, say, a car crash case.
I always want good photos of the area of the fall. I also use Google Maps to get an idea of what the area looked like before the fall.
Then, there is investigating who the owner and property managers were. This is not as easy as it sounds. It actually can become quite complicated. Owners and managers of property can often hide behind different company names and ignore our investigation to hide insurance information.
So it is completely normal for slip and fall cases to take a long time.
As you can see, no matter the type of injury case, you and your lawyer both want the case settled fast.
However, insurance delays and the nature of the cases themselves ensure that these cases take time. They require diligence from a good lawyer who really wants to help. And the hardest part: faith and patience from the client to know that the lawyer isn't delaying the case or messing it up.
Get Clear Answers and Strong Legal Support With The Law Office of Scott D. DeSalvo
Waiting for a settlement can be frustrating, but having the right legal team makes all the difference. At The Law Office of Scott D. DeSalvo, we fight to move cases forward, push back against insurance company delays, and work hard to secure the maximum compensation for our clients. We also represent clients in nursing home injury, personal injury, and wrongful death cases with the same commitment and proven results.
If you need a second opinion or want to discuss your injury case, contact us today for trusted, experienced legal help.
