5 Common Causes of Settlement Delays in Personal Injury Cases
Personal injury settlements can be a lifeline for victims who are seeking compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, funeral expenses, or other damages. However, the process is sadly not always a swift one and delays are extremely common. Various factors can slow down your path to receiving a settlement check, but understanding these causes can help you manage expectations and stay informed throughout the process. Below are five of the most common reasons your settlement check due to personal injury may be getting delayed:
1. Medical Treatment Duration
While a settlement check must be sent within five business days ordinarily, the first reason you may notice a delay is due to the medical treatment duration. Insurance companies typically wait until the injured party has reached what is known as their Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) before negotiating a settlement. This simply refers to the point in time at which your condition has stabilized and further recovery is unlikely. The reason insurance will wait is because it is at this point that total medical costs, including ongoing care, are most likely to be accurate.
If your treatment involves long-term care, multiple surgeries, extended rehabilitation, or other similar situations, your settlement process may be delayed. It’s important that all medical expenses are accounted for, though, so that your settlement amount fully covers your damages. It can be frustrating to wait but this is one of the causes of delays that you should try to come to terms with due to its benefits.
2. Disputes Over Liability
The second common cause for delays of settlement checks in personal injury cases is due to the determination of fault complexity. When multiple parties are involved, determining who was at fault can be difficult and insurance companies may try to dispute liability which can prolong the settlement process. For example, if the responsible party’s insurance thinks you are partially or fully to blame for the incident, they may try to delay negotiations to conduct a more thorough investigation.
Whether it’s gathering additional evidence, consulting witnesses, reviewing police reports, or accounting for witness statements, this can cause delays in your settlement negotiations. Generally, the more complex the accident, the more time you can expect this extra discovery period to take. By having a skilled attorney reviewing your case and handling the negotiations, though, you can quicken the pace.
3. The Complexity of Your Case
The complexity of the injuries you have suffered themselves or your case details will also play a significant role in determining the timeline of your settlement. In cases that involve severe injuries, cases with multiple liable parties, and cases with extensive financial or property damage, the timeline can be expected to be longer. Insurance companies or the opposing sides’ lawyers will want to scrutinize every aspect of your claim to ensure that overpayment is not occurring.
To provide context, as an example, a catastrophic brain injury or spinal cord injury will often require extensive documentation and expert opinions to establish the breadth of the injury. On the other hand, a simple fracture of a bone will be far easier to document in the settlement process. Complex cases can also involve economic and medical experts who need to estimate long-term care costs associated with things such as rehabilitation needs and lost future income which can add another layer of time to your case.
4. Insurance Company Stall Tactics
As evident from all of the above, much of the reason for delays in the settlement process tends to stem from insurance companies. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of the tactics that some insurance companies may use to try and delay settlements. One very common tactic is to delay the settlement process by hoping the injured party simply grows impatient and accepts a lower offer.
Insurance adjusters may often challenge the severity of your injuries, request seemingly unnecessary documentation, or simply prolong negotiations in the hopes that you’ll settle for far less than what you could get. In some situations, they may even offer lowball settlements early in the process to try and entice you into accepting before you do research into what you could possibly by rewards. This is why having an experienced attorney by your side during the personal injury settlement process is so important.
5. Court Backlogs
The final reason you may notice a delay in your settlement check coming through is due to delays in the court system that are slowing down the process, specifically if your case is going to trial. Most personal injury cases are settled out of court but litigation is necessary for some when negotiations can’t resolve the issue. Unfortunately, the legal system can sometimes be backlogged with cases, especially in densely populated areas where courts handle countless cases a day.
Legal practices such as mandatory mediation, depositions, and discovery will also take longer for a formal trial, with some of these steps even being required regardless of whether you go to court or not. These procedures are important to ensure all relevant information is available, but they can add significant time to the overall settlement process.
Receive your just compensation today
While delays in personal injury settlements are common, they are never ideal. Understanding the reasons behind why a delay might be occurring can help you to stay informed and patient so that you don’t jump on an offer that might not be in your best interest. Medical treatment completion, liability disputes, case complexity, insurance company stall tactics, and legal procedures can all contribute to delays but they are just the tip of the iceberg.
To protect your interests, it’s best to work with an accredited and knowledgeable attorney who can walk you through the personal injury settlement process and help to guide the negotiations. Remember that while it can be tempting to settle quickly, patience is often rewarded with a more favorable outcome that fully covers your damages.