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September 9th, 2024
You’ve been through a terrible accident that turned your life upside down. You’re dealing with injuries, mounting medical bills, lost income – so you hired a personal injury lawyer to secure compensation and get your life back on track. But weeks or months later, you’re left wondering, “Why is this taking so long? What’s the holdup?”
We get the frustration over delays. As experienced injury attorneys, however, we know many legitimate factors can slow down settlement negotiations. More importantly, rushing monetary resolutions often means settling for far less than you truly deserve. In this blog, we’ll explain the reasons for any delays while positioning you to recover maximum fair compensation.
Every injury case is unique, but some common factors frequently impact settlement timelines:
Your lawyer likely needs to wait until you complete medical treatment and reach “maximum medical improvement” – when your injuries stabilize after recovering as fully as possible. Settling sooner risks an insufficient amount to cover your future needs.
More complex injuries or technical issues like medical malpractice take longer to investigate and negotiate. Catastrophic injuries around accommodations, lost income potential, and non-economic damages like pain/suffering drag out discussions.
Without strong evidence proving negligence and damages, insurers have little incentive for reasonable settlements. Defendants dragging their feet on providing documentation and records causes delays.
Insurers are motivated to drag out negotiations, hoping you’ll accept a lowball amount out of desperation. Excessive document demands and delaying tactics prolong the process.
You should be wary of settling before reaching maximum medical improvement (MMI) – the point when:
Settling pre-MMI risks undervaluing your case by not accounting for future medical costs, need for accommodations, lost earning potential, and other long-term damages. Patience hitting this benchmark ensures more equitable compensation.
Other common delay factors include:
Medical malpractice, product liability, and other specialized cases require in-depth investigations by medical experts, engineers, and other technical disciplines before negotiating settlements.
When multiple defendants, insurance policies, or parties are involved, negotiations grow more complex, having to apportion liability and work through the interconnected pieces.
Your lawyer can’t negotiate strongly without clear evidence proving liability, damages, your losses, etc. Defendants resisting documentation and discovery requests cause delays.
Insurers are financially motivated to impose endless hurdles and delays to minimize payouts eventually. Your lawyer must push back against these bad faith stall tactics.
Insurers persistently lowball claims early, hoping you’ll accept a lowball amount out of desperation. They incrementally increase offers slightly when rejected.
Your injury lawyer refuses to bid against themselves. They establish your comprehensive claim value through diligent documentation and evidence – then stand firm for appropriate compensation aligned to reasonable case valuations. While slower, it prevents being shortchanged.
In some cases, your attorney may need to escalate by filing an official lawsuit to hopefully break settlement stalemates when:
Going to litigation doesn’t necessarily mean your case will culminate in a trial. The threat of trial often re-centers settlement momentum through:
The threat of determined personal injury attorneys credibly taking cases to trial often sparks more productive negotiations from the defense.
An injury settlement can understandably feel like a prolonged process between medical treatments, overcoming insurance tactics, handling multi-party complexities, and legal requirements.
That’s why our role is to provide consistent guidance, communication, and legal advocacy to uplift you:
You’ve already endured trauma from your injuries. Let us secure the highest compensation possible as efficiently as the process allows – not needless rushes compromising your recovery.
If you’ve grown anxious about delays in your personal injury case’s progress, reach out to Hess Injury Law today for a free consultation. We’ll explain your case’s expected timeline while outlining our approach to advocating for you through every delay or obstacle toward the justice you deserve.
Disclaimer: The content of this blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel.
Peter J. Hess grew up in Walla Walla, Washington. He is a 1996 graduate of Walla Walla High School and a 2000 graduate of the University of Washington, with a B.A. in Business Administration/Information Systems.
Peter graduated from Willamette University College of Law, with honors, in 2007. While at Willamette, he was an Associate Editor of the Willamette Law Review, he was a Teacher’s Assistant for a Legal Research and Writing professor, and he worked as a Personal Injury Law Clerk at Swanson, Lathen, Alexander & McCann in Salem, Oregon. After graduation from Willamette, Peter began working here at Hess Injury Law. In 2012, he became a partner in the firm. He is licensed to practice law in both Washington and Oregon.
