Being injured due to another person’s negligence is a scary situation and it will help to have an experienced New York personal injury attorney on your side. Many people ask “How long does a personal injury claim take in New York?” While there’s no simple answer to this question, you can get an idea of what to expect based on the various factors affecting your case.
- It is often not beneficial to get a quick settlement. Once you settle a case, you cannot collect a second time if your injuries get worse. A settlement is considered final and binding. Therefore, if you settle the case early, you will be precluded from receiving fair compensation if your injuries have not fully resolved. Often it is not known right away whether a person’s injuries will require more significant medical treatment, such as having injections, or surgery. Sometimes it can take conservative treatment for a few years before surgery is performed. After surgery, more physical therapy is usually required and it may take another year to know whether the injuries have resolved or are permanent.
- Litigation is generally a slow process. The courts have many cases before them and often can only see the parties on a given case once every few months. Motions are made when the parties need more serious intervention by the courts and decisions can take up to a year or more sometimes to receive. It is for this reason that cases can take many years before getting a trial, especially involving the courts in the Bronx and Brooklyn. However, an experienced personal injury lawyer understands this and will push immediately to get the information needed from our adversary to win the case.
- Defendants sometimes try to delay or conceal information. It is important that information is obtained from the adversary driver to help your case and oftentimes the insurance company lawyers will try to obstruct to prevent the disclosure of this information. An experienced personal injury lawyer knows not to quickly rush through but instead, to aggressively push to get this information to help win your case.
- The size of the insurance policy. If there is only a $25,000 policy of coverage available for an auto accident, the fault of the other driver is clear, such as a hit in the rear, and the injuries are significant, such as a fracture with surgery, then the case can usually be resolved very quickly. An experienced personal injury lawyer should be able to convince the insurance adjustor to immediately tender that full policy limit. However, if the policy limit is much larger and the injuries are significant, then the more prudent action may be to delay settling until a person has completed the majority of their treatment. These are issues that will be discussed with the client so he or she can make an informed decision on what they want to do after listening to their attorney’s advice. In the end, it is the client’s decision of whether to accept a settlement offer by the insurance company.
How Case Complexity Affects Your Timeline
When to Accept an Early Settlement?
It rarely makes sense to accept an early settlement just to resolve your case more quickly. Insurance companies are under no obligation to make a fair offer, so you could wind up with substantially less compensation than you would have gotten had you held out for longer. Approximately 95% of cases are resolved before trial, but most of them still involve substantial negotiations and litigation first with the insurance companies and their hired defense attorneys.
It is the clients decision of whether to settle, and a conversation with your lawyer will help you understand what your claim might be worth so you can make an informed decision about your claim.
FAQs
How Long Does a Personal Injury Claim Take in NY?
A case can settle in less than 3 months or more than three years. How long a personal injury claim takes in NY varies depending on factors such as the complexity of the case, whether it goes to trial, and how experienced your attorney is. Complex cases where liability is in question, or a large amount of evidence is required to prove negligence or damages, tend to take longer to resolve, as do those that must go to court.
What Are the Signs of a Good Settlement Offer?
What counts as a good settlement offer depends on your individual situation, including your goals, the scope of your damages, the strength of your case, and how soon you need to resolve things. Experienced personal injury lawyers understand the amounts that a jury would generally give if the case went to trial, and those are usually the starting points for negotiating a fair settlement.
How Much Will I Get From a $25,000 Settlement?
Generally, personal injury attorneys in New York agree to take the case on a contingency, meaning there is no fee for all of the work no matter how long it takes, and if the case is won through settlement or verdict, the fees are one-third of the recovery. Any legal expenses of the litigation are considered disbursements and they are paid by the attorneys often times on condition that they are paid back out of any recovery. Examples include court fees such as for starting the case into suit and motion filing fees. Other examples include paying the court reporters their fees for depositions, paying treating doctors to obtain the client medical records, and paying treating doctors to testify in court for their time. The expenses a doctor charges to testify can be over $10,000 which is why it would not be financially prudent to go to trial on a case with limited injuries or a limited insurance policy of $25,000.
Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer Today
No matter how you were injured, if someone else was fully or partially at fault for causing the accident, you may be entitled to recover compensation to cover things like medical bills, lost wages, and non-economic damages. You can hire a personal injury lawyer in New York to help you with all aspects of filing your claim.
The team here at the Law Office of Brett J. Nomberg, PLLC, focuses exclusively on personal injury law. For over 30 years, we have helped clients hold defendants liable for the harm they have caused. We have a reputation for providing hands-on, personal legal services, and every client we take works directly with our lead attorney. You can get your case started by contacting us to schedule an initial consultation today.
