There are a lot of things that can impact car accident settlement duration.
This might not be what you want to hear; when you’ve had an accident, suffered injuries, and been handed a large stack of medical bills, you want the insurance process to work quickly. Unfortunately, it can often take many months for claimants to get the money they’re entitled to.
In this post, we examine the five factors that determine how long a car accident settlement takes.
This might not have been the first thing you thought of when you read the title of this article. However, the reality is that your insurance company (or the insurance company of the at-fault party in your case) is the biggest obstacle standing between you and your money.
Insurance firms are profit-seeking entities that will do what they can to devalue your claim or avoid paying out altogether.
In other cases, insurers will use stalling tactics to increase your car accident settlement duration. These companies realize that car accident victims like you are often impatient when it comes to money; you’re dealing with medical bills, lost wages, and other costs, and you need your settlement as soon as you can get it. The longer the process goes on, the better the company’s chances of settling your claim for less than it’s worth.
Common tactics insurers use to make the claims process more difficult include:
The list above is a long one, but it’s not exhaustive. Insurance companies have countless tricks up their sleeve when it comes to fighting claims. You’ll need to work with an experienced attorney who can combat these tactics and keep things moving.
The more minor your injuries are, the quicker the settlement process is likely to be for you. Minor injuries result in lower medical costs and less time away from work; this means the insurance company you’re dealing with will have less of an incentive to drag out your claim. It might decide that fighting you will increase its costs unnecessarily by taking up its agents’ time, and that the sensible decision is to issue a payout.
On the other hand, claims for severe injuries tend to take much longer. As well as the increased insurance company attention that’s typical in cases like these, your attorneys will need time to build a strong case on your behalf.
If you’d like to learn more about how the extent of your injuries is likely to affect your case, contact us today to schedule a free initial consultation. We can sit down together to discuss your injuries, your situation regarding work, and your needs going forward. With our expert input, you’ll be able to make an informed decision regarding your next steps.
When it’s not clear who’s to blame for a crash, insurance companies will investigate to see if they can minimize their liabilities. This is common in cases involving multiple parties or conflicting evidence.
Vicarious liability is another potential complication here. If you get into an accident with a commercial driver who’s working for a company at the time of the collision (such as a truck driver delivering a load for a haulage firm), the company might be liable, rather than the driver. However, this isn’t always clear-cut. Employers often try to shift liability onto employees in this situation, which can further delay the settlement of your claim.
It’s also important to remember that a lot of car insurance policies in Pennsylvania work on a no-fault basis. This means that you can file a claim with your own insurer regardless of who was to blame for your crash, and that you don’t need to prove liability before your claim can succeed. This makes the process a lot quicker, assuming your no-fault policy is sufficiently comprehensive to cover all your costs.
If there’s some dispute over the validity of your claim, you’ll need evidence to support your side of the story. In certain cases, this evidence is simply hard to come by. We’ve had a look at some of the crucial types of evidence we tend to rely on most often in car accident cases below.
Bystanders or other road users may be able to provide an impartial account of the circumstances surrounding your accident. This will be particularly useful if they saw the at-fault party speeding, running a red light, or engaging in another form of reckless behavior on the road.
If the police come to the scene of an accident (which they generally do in cases involving injuries or property damage), they will compile a report about it. These reports contain all potentially important details about collisions, so they’re very useful as evidence. Plus, because they come from the police, there’s never any dispute regarding their reliability.
Traffic cameras, dashcams, and CCTV cameras often capture footage of road accidents. With cameras of all kinds becoming more common and producing higher-quality footage, this has become a very useful source of evidence in road accident cases.
However, depending who owns the footage in a given situation, getting your hands on it may be difficult. This is particularly true if you don’t begin the case-building process directly after your accident. This is one reason why we recommend that all accident victims contact a lawyer as soon as possible after their crashes.
In more complex cases (such as multi-vehicle pile-ups), your attorney might turn to an accident reconstruction expert to provide insights on where liability may lie. In recent years, the software available to experts in this area has become highly advanced. It uses various types of physical evidence to paint an accurate picture of the circumstances leading up to an accident.
As noted above, car accident claimants are usually impatient when it comes to getting paid. However, this is more of an issue in some cases than others.
If you’re not under severe financial pressure related to your accident, it may be a good idea for you to be patient when it comes to dealings with insurance companies. Though it can be frustrating to deal with underhanded insurance adjusters for months on end, waiting it out may allow you to get the best possible settlement.
However, if you’re struggling to make ends meet, you might not have this luxury.
This is a particularly big problem if your insurance company knows about your financial situation, as agents will roll out every available tactic to delay progress on your claim. This is one among many reasons why we tell our clients never to interact with an insurance companies directly; your attorney knows how to give them the information they need without sharing unnecessary details that could weaken your position.
If you’re worried that you might be forced into accepting a low settlement just to cover your bills, discuss the situation with your attorney. They’ll be able to come up with a strategy that will meet your needs, aggressively pursuing a large settlement while minimizing delays.
Every car accident case is unique, but few settle as quickly as the claimant would like. Insurance companies will do whatever they can to slow the process down, and the level of detail involved in more serious cases mean that claims can often take years to settle.
Hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer is the best way to improve your chances of a quick settlement that meets your needs. Contact the Cochran Firm in Philadelphia today to discuss what your case strategy might look like. You can schedule your free initial consultation by calling us on 800-969-4400 or filling out our online contact form.
