A majority of people become wary of filing lawsuits as they are worried about many things from the bad news of the accident to their medical condition, and how long they will draw out to reach a decision. Personal injury cases include road and car accident cases, workplace accidents, and many such accidents.

To learn the average time for a personal injury claim to reach its conclusion and for you to get the compensation for your accident and medical treatment, you need to understand how this type of case evaluation works. Of course, the time required is predicated on the kind of case. Regardless of the case, it is essential that you seek a free consultation with a lawyer that you could see yourself having a healthy attorney-client relationship with through the process.

Factors determining the duration of personal injury cases

To get a good idea about how personal injury claims work, you should speak to a law firm that has practicing personal injury lawyers who have experience in personal injury lawsuits and the types of reasonable settlements are involved, either via trial or out of court. Attorneys in this practice area will know how to deal with every aspect of your case from ensuring that you are getting the correct medical care, to handling your medical records, to filing an insurance claim, to pitching settlement negotiations, and everything in between.

If you have suffered a horrible injury in an auto accident, for example, and wish to file a lawsuit against those who caused the crash, you should be ready to wait as it could take months or in some cases, even longer to get your due settlement. For this reason, it is crucial that accident victims record the contact information of the people involved in the accident.

These delays should not be a criterion for you to accept any settlement offers that come your way. The insurance companies often approach victims intending to settling the case early and may provide a figure which may not be even sufficient to cover medical expenses. So, it's better to let your personal injury attorney deal with these companies rather than dealing with them yourself.

Next is the ‘discovery’ phase. It is the time required to collect evidence for your case which means you need to collect documents, witness’ statements, and more. Once all the evidence is collected, the case can go for a settlement. If the defendant and their lawyer feel you have a strong case, then they will hesitate to go to trial and would like to offer compensation.  Such settlements can be beneficial for the plaintiff as well as the defendant.

If the case appears weak, the opposite party may want to go to trial. If the defendant refuses to part with any compensation or disagrees with the evidence of the plaintiff, the case could be brought to court.

The other reasons a personal injury case can take a long time to settle are:

• The Complexity of the case
  
• A massive sum of money is involved
  
• You still have to recover completely, and hence the total amount you have incurred for your treatment cannot be estimated now
  

Thus, note that the more complex the case is, the longer it will take to settle the matter. At the same time, you need not panic because if you are confident that the other driver has caused the injuries due to their negligence and if you have substantial proof to back up your case, you can hope for an early settlement. Having a reputed and experienced personal injury lawyer will also help you to settle the case in the shortest possible time.

If your case goes to trial, your attorney at law will be able to present substantial evidence that works in your favor.  A prosecution can sometimes take a few days to a week, but in some cases, even the case preparation may take months. All in all, you can expect your case to take at least a year or so, but again, it differs from case to case.

If you are unsure about how long your personal injury settlement case might go before a decision is reached, talk to a personal injury lawyer at The Law Offices of Alvin F. de Levie from our firm today at 888-534-3077.