Every personal injury case is different, and some cases can be resolved shortly after the accident and other cases can’t be resolved until you finish treating it. Some injuries require a year’s worth of treatment. Some injuries require six months worth of treatment. And so that’s why I say every case is different. So the question “how long does it take to resolve my personal injury case”, really is a difficult question to answer.
Our Goal is to Resolve Your Case Fast
Our goal at Osterbind Law is to resolve your case within 12 to 18 months after you have reached maximum medical improvement. That’s the point when your doctors say that you have reached 100% recovery or you’ve gotten as good as you’re going to get, essentially. There’s a 10% impairment rating or a 20% impairment rating and there is nothing that could be medically done to help you ever get back to 100%. So once you’ve reached maximum medical improvement, our goal is to resolve your case within 12 to 18 months after that. And that’s on average.
Some cases may only take three, four, five, six months after you’ve reached maximum medical improvement, depending on whether the insurance company will make a reasonable offer for the value of your case. If you get into litigation, I always tell people, it takes at least a year to get in front of a jury after you file a suit. But we’ve all already spent a few months here, four, or five, six months trying to negotiate the case with the insurance company. That’s why we say if we can resolve your case, we hope to do it within 12 to 18 months after you’ve reached maximum medical improvement.
When Things Could Take Longer
There are also those cases that take an extraordinarily longer amount of time because of the complicated facts, numerous witnesses, a difficult medical diagnosis that has to be examined more deeply with some very specialized experts. Those cases often cost more and they often take longer because there are more attorneys involved, the issues are more complicated, and it takes that much longer to get a multi-day jury from a judge’s docket as opposed to a one-day jury. It’s a lot easier to get on the court’s calendar when you’re only asking for one day as opposed to five days. So depending on the facts and circumstances of your case, the answer to that question is going to be different every time.
