Car Accident Settlement Timeline

Answer:

One of the first questions people ask us when they come to us for a car wreck claim is how long it will take to resolve their case. The answer varies greatly depending on the severity of the injuries and whether liability is disputed or not. In these cases, generally we are going to want the client to finish their treatment before we pursue a claim. In these types of lawsuits, you only get one chance, so you don’t want to resolve the claim before the full extent of your injuries are revealed. You don’t get to go back and negotiate after the fact.

What we like to do is have our clients finish their treatment and we’re then ready to submit a demand to the insurance company. If you have a more significant injury and through two years of treatment you are not back to normal, or if you have a very significant injury that is clearly not going to go away, you can submit your case a lot sooner. Two years is an important factor because that’s the statute of limitations for a personal injury claim in Georgia. If you’re in a car wreck and you want to file a lawsuit, you have two years from the date of the wreck to do so. If you don’t file within that time period, you lose the right to file that claim. If, for example, you have an injury and you treat for three or four months and then you’re back to normal, oftentimes those cases can be resolved within two or three months after the time period where you finish treating. If you have a more significant injury, those cases go into the litigation system. Once there, they may take six to 18 months to resolve before we can get them taken care of.