A common question about personal injury lawsuits is how much time the injured party must wait before they can recover financially for the damages they have suffered. This is a very important question, because without a doubt, being injured is expensive. Not only do injured parties lose income when they miss work because of their injuries, medical bills add up quickly and arrive in the mail almost as soon as patients are released from the hospital.
There is no one-size-fits all answer to the question of how long any given personal injury case will take, because the facts of each situation are as unique as the clients themselves. There are some basic phases that each personal injury case goes through on its way to conclusion. If you have been injured, understanding how your case will proceed can be helpful, even if it does not provide a concrete answer about how long the case will last.
The first phase of any personal injury case is the period during which the victim recovers from his or her injuries. While it may be tempting to try and settle your case as you recover, it is in your best interest to wait until you have achieved maximum medical improvement, a state in which your condition cannot be improved any further. Until you have attained maximum medical improvement, the full extent of your injuries as well as the potential future effects of those injuries on your life is unknown. It is not possible to determine whether a proposed settlement will adequately compensate you for your injuries until you know the full extent of their impact.
Even though settling your personal injury case will have to wait until you are healed, it is a good idea to consult with an attorney as soon as you are physically able to do so. Your attorney can get started on collecting information from the doctors and other professionals who are treating your injuries. If your attorney is able to connect with your treatment providers in advance of your full recovery, it is likely to take less time for them to gather all of the information that they need from those treatment providers once you have recovered.
Once you have realized maximum medical improvement, your attorney will use the information from your treatment providers and other relevant sources to create a complete picture of your damages. Your attorney will submit that information to the insurance company or insurance companies which represent the person or people who are responsible for your injuries. It usually takes an insurance company about four to eight weeks to review that information and reply to your attorney with an initial offer.
When your attorney receives the initial offer from the insurance company, your case enters the “negotiations” phase. During negotiations, your attorney will talk to you about the initial offer. Depending upon whether you accept or reject that offer, your attorney will either notify the insurance company of your acceptance or prepare a counteroffer and send it to the insurance company for their review. Sometimes, an insurance company makes an initial offer that is reasonable. Much of the time, several exchanges of offers and counteroffers are required before an offer which is acceptable to the client is obtained.
In the event that negotiations do not lead to an acceptable settlement offer, your attorney will file suit and your case will proceed to the litigation phase. Once a case is in litigation, there is still a very good chance that it will settle before trial, because there is quite a bit of time between when a case is filed and when it is tried, and during that time, negotiations continue.
If you have been injured, a Kansas personal injury attorney can help you to obtain the financial recovery that you deserve. To learn more about your case, please call the Wichita office of Cummings & Cummings, LLC at (316) 264-1548. Our team of seasoned personal injury attorneys will take the time necessary to review you case, and advise you of all your legal options. We look forward to providing you with superior legal representation.