It is not easy to determine how long it will take to settle a Massachusetts car accident claim. Personal Injury Attorney Len Spada of #SpadaLawGroup explains the factors that could drag it out.
TRANSCRIPT:
One of the most frequently asked questions I get is how long will it take to get my case settled? My answer is almost always, "It depends." Not the most satisfying answer, I understand, but it's absolutely the most truthful. It depends on the complexity of the case with respect to how the accident happened and how serious your injuries, and how involved your medical treatment will be. No two car accidents are the same. Some are straightforward, such as a rear end crash while stopped at a red light, while others may involve a multi-car pile up on an interstate highway with many witnesses and conflicting statements as to who was at fault. To be successful, a client must be able to prove that he or she was 50% or less at fault for the collision. If you were found to be over 50% at fault in Massachusetts, you cannot recover damages from the other car owner or their insurance company.
Sometimes in order to gather the necessary evidence to prove who was at fault, much work needs to be done, which can and will slow the entire process. The other factors that often dictate how long it takes to get a client's case settled is how badly they were injured and what type of medical treatment they required. In order to fully and accurately evaluate our client's case, we try to wait until the client has reached what's called a maximum medical improvement, or MMI for short, prior to settling the case. MMI is a point at which the client has either made a full recovery or has reached a point where they will recover no further. The more serious the injury, the longer it usually takes to reach MMI. Sometimes a client will not reach the point within the three year statute of limitations and we must file a lawsuit in order to protect our client's right to continue to pursue their case.
In those cases, we will use medical experts to provide evidence on the need for future care. This allows either the insurance company for the at fault driver, or the jury if we're in court, the ability to assess our client's full damage claim. It really does depend. If your case is a rear-ender and you are not hurt badly, and you have a few months of physical therapy and you heal completely, your case might take four to six months to settle. If you're involved in a major accident with conflicting and confusion versions as to how the accident occurred, and your injuries are severe and your medical treatment prolonged, the case could take several years to come to a resolution. Once I speak to a client, I can usually give them a good estimate on the time it will take to resolve their case, but there's no general rule of thumb to use for all situations.
