Pedestrian Accident Settlement Timeline

Answer:

When a client comes to us with a pedestrian accident claim, one of the first things they often want to know is how long it’s going to take to resolve this case. The timeline is dependent on the facts of the case and the amount of insurance coverage available. Pedestrian cases are usually some of the easiest to resolve without having to file a lawsuit. When a case has significant injuries and the liability of the at-fault driver is clear, those are often cases that can be resolved in a quicker fashion. It often will depend on the amount of medical expenses involved and the amount of automobile insurance the at-fault driver has. Sometimes injuries may be very significant and there may be a lot of insurance coverage, and those are cases that have to be worked for a much longer amount of time, such as if an individual is hit by a commercial truck. There may be a lot more fighting over what the value of compensation should be. In those cases, if we can’t work them out before filing a lawsuit, we have to put that into litigation.

Personal injury cases have a two-year statute of limitations, which means that to pursue one of those claims in litigation, you must file the lawsuit within two years of the date of the injury. We try to get as much of the medical treatment done as possible prior to filing the lawsuit because if something’s overlooked or doesn’t arise until later, you don’t get to go back and ask for more money if you’ve already resolved your case. We want to make sure that all past, present, and future expenses are included. If we have to put one of these cases into suit, it’s going to take longer to work through gathering the evidence that is necessary and potentially presenting the case to a jury. A pretty fair estimate of how long it might take after you file a lawsuit would be somewhere between one and two years.