After an injury, most people want two things: closure and fair compensation. If you are waiting for your personal injury case to settle, you have experienced delays in legal action. It can be easy to think your lawyer is stalling, but the legal and medical worlds have complex timelines. If you settle quickly, you may not secure full compensation for future medical bills.
So, what are the legitimate roadblocks causing the delay? Understanding these professional reasons is crucial to managing your expectations and staying patient. Let us look at five reasons your attorney is taking so long. This gives you the bigger picture of a case carefully built for success.
It Takes Time to Reach Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI)
Waiting for the compensation you deserve can be exhausting when you are hurt. Lawyers will avoid settling your case hastily for one of the most important reasons: Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI). This step is essential for any personal injury claim to be valid.
So, what is MMI? Being at a point of maximum medical improvement does not mean you are fully healed. Instead, you are at this point when your doctor believes your medical condition has stabilized. At this point, no other medical treatment is likely to help you. Mostly, MMI gives the clearest and most definitive picture of your long-term prognosis, classifying which injuries are temporary and permanent.
Your personal injury claim is a one-time shot. By signing a settlement agreement, you give up the right to seek further compensation for that incident. A competent lawyer sees settling any case before treatment is finished as dangerous and perhaps malpractice.
Say, for example, that you have suffered a serious back injury.
After three months of therapy, the insurer adjuster offers a fair amount. If your attorney suggests settling, but later you find that you require a $100,000 surgery and years of future care, then you have no recourse. That single settlement check is all you will ever receive. A hardworking attorney's main job is to protect you from this exact situation. Before advising you on when to settle a personal injury case, they must know the extent of the damages.
The value of a significant claim depends entirely on your condition at MMI. It is impossible to calculate future medical expenses accurately without achieving this standard. In a serious injury claim, loss of earnings is usually the biggest head of damage, and it can cover future surgery, medication, aids, long-term nursing, and rehabilitative therapy.
The settlement must consider all the medical assistance you need for your injury for the rest of your life. To do so, lawyers rely upon MMI’s consistency to support the retention of medical and life-care planning experts. These professionals use the MMI determination to estimate your care needs 10, 20, or even 50 years into the future.
By waiting until MMI is established, your compensation will more accurately reflect the true extent of your injuries. Thus, the money you receive will be able to support you for your entire life. If you rush at this stage, you risk your future.
There is a Need for a Thorough Investigation and Evidence-Gathering
Although your doctors often decide when you can reach maximum medical improvement (MMI), the second significant time factor in the personal injury investigation process is entirely up to your lawyer’s professional commitment. When communication slows, clients often wonder what their lawyer is doing behind the scenes. The answer is clear: They are in the critical pre-lawsuit stage, quietly working up an airtight case to maximize your damages and minimize the defense's ability to deny negligence.
To be successful, you need much more than just the police report or incident form. Your lawyer investigates more intensely to find strong evidence for your injury claim. This will require a lot of outreach and coordination with third parties, most of whom have no incentive to move quickly. If you do not invest the necessary time and effort in this process, your claim remains only an allegation rather than a proven fact.
The process of collecting evidence after an accident is long and tedious, as the lawyer must compile extensive official documents, including:
- Medical records — All medical records collection is notoriously slow. Your attorney should request certified records from all doctors, hospitals, specialists, and therapists you have seen regarding the injury. Every facility has its compliance department and turnaround time, which can take months to complete.
- Lost wages documentation — To prove lost wages, your attorney will need your pay stubs, tax returns (W-2s or 1099s), and a letter from your employer explaining the lost benefits. It is also more complicated for the self-employed to gather the required financial documents to prove lost income.
- Interviews of witnesses — Eyewitnesses often fidget or are reluctant to participate. This requires a strong investigative legwork by your team to locate him/her and obtain sworn written statements or affidavits to preserve his/her evidence early on.
- For challenging cases, lawyers also hire various experts to study the facts. These experts include:
- Crash reconstructionists, to visually demonstrate how the crash happened
- Medical experts, who are separate from your treating doctors, review your records and write prognosis reports linking your injuries to the accident.
- In case of a permanent injury, economists or vocational experts estimate and assign value to your lost future income or earning capacity.
Each item on the checklist demands a request, follow-up, and review. The time spent during this process ultimately increases your settlement value.
Insurance Company Delays and Negotiation Challenges
When your injury has stabilized (MMI) and your lawyer has gathered all the evidence, your claim moves from the investigatory phase to the adversarial phase: settlement negotiation. Here, your lawyer talks directly with the insurance company’s representative, the adjuster. Time spent here is not because of your lawyer, but because of the insurance company's delay tactics and the two sides' opposite goals.
Understanding the insurance adjuster’s role is very important. They try to save the company money. They are trained, paid professionals. Their success is measured by how little they pay out, not how quickly or fairly they compensate the injured party. Commonly, they use denial, delay, and devaluation with your claim. With this in mind, your lawyer must treat the negotiation like a chess match, not a friendly chat. It is the simplest way to walk away from thousands of dollars you are entitled to by rushing to accept the first offer.
The negotiation starts with your lawyer sending a formal demand letter or“demand package.” The exhaustive evidence collected (medical records, expert reports, and wage documents) is attached to this letter. Furthermore, it contains a figure your lawyer thinks is the fair value of your claim. This is the moment the adjuster has been waiting for, and their response is almost always predictable.
Usually, the insurance company starts with an unreasonably lowball settlement offer in most cases. Upon receipt of the first offer, do not accept it and do not point out any errors, either:
- Test your patience and financial stress
- See how desperate your lawyer is to settle quickly
- Make the starting point of the negotiations much lower than the claim value
To an experienced personal injury attorney, this initial offer indicates the beginning of negotiations.
The next part of the bargaining is making offers and counteroffers for weeks or months. The delays are rarely accidental. Negotiating with the Insurance adjuster means waiting for their supervisor to approve the offer. You will also have to wait for the defense lawyer to review the files and for the adjuster to devise a new ‘hook’ to dispute liability or severity of the injuries.
Your lawyer uses this time strategically to do the following:
- They use specific evidence to counter the adjuster's arguments
- They also demonstrate their readiness for trial, which provides the strongest leverage against the insurer
- They need to analyze each counteroffer closely to see if it signifies an increase in the case’s recognized value.
This careful give-and-take ensures every cent of value is secured. If a settlement offer comes in quickly, in almost all cases, it is a cheap settlement offer. Your attorney’s refusal of that low-ball initial offer is their professional guarantee that they will work towards securing you the compensation that you truly deserve.
The Formal Litigation and Discovery Process Takes Time
Many steps happen before any lawsuit is filed, like medical stabilization, evidence gathering, and negotiating. When the insurance company does not offer a fair settlement, your lawyer must file a lawsuit. A lawsuit is a formal filing that takes the matter into the court system. Filing a lawsuit introduces a new, time-consuming stage called the discovery phase.
People usually do not want to be sued, but it is often necessary. Launching a claim compels the defense to respond. It also sends the message that your legal team is ready for trial. It allows your lawyer to use the tools of discovery, which are coercive court procedures they could not use in negotiations. The insurance adjuster, who used to stall or delay information, is now legally required to comply with the court deadlines.
The lawyer no longer sets the timeline when a case goes to court. The court does. A packed calendar is present in every court, from local municipal to federal courts. The timeline is now set by a scheduling order from the court, which has deadlines, including motions, hearings, and discovery.
Court schedules are slow-moving and often delayed, which can postpone a lawsuit by months or years. The waiting time is usually the period it takes the court to process paperwork and schedule the judge or find an open trial date.
The legal discovery process involves the two parties exchanging information and gathering evidence formally and identifiably. This stage is designed to avoid trial by ambush. However, it is slow by nature because it involves the coordination of numerous busy professionals and managing many terabytes of data. This process can take (six months to a year or more), depending on how complex the case is.
The main tools of discovery include:
- Interrogatories — These are written questions the opposing party must answer under oath. Formulating detailed, strategic inquiries and awaiting the defendant’s sworn response (typically within thirty to forty-five days) takes much time.
- Requesting documents — The defense requires these formal documents to produce formal requests for specific evidence. Evidence could include internal emails, limits to insurance coverage (if any videos are produced), maintenance records, and more. Reviewing the thousands of pages that may be produced from this request is a monumental task for your legal team.
- Deposition — This refers to an out-of-court, sworn testimony by a party or witness. Locking in testimony and cross-examining the other side is crucial. However, to set up a deposition, you should get the witness, the defense attorney, your attorney, and a court reporter (who translates the testimony) to agree on a time. In a big case, scheduling dozens of depositions can take months due to the logistics involved.
The discovery phase in personal injury litigation is essential before trial. We must have all the facts. Your lawyer's involvement here does not delay the process. It is the process when a fair settlement cannot be achieved outside of court.
Strategic Patience and Court Congestion Could Delay Settlement
In the discovery phase, if no settlement occurs, the next event will depend on the court system, which is entirely outside anyone’s control. At this crucial time, your lawyer’s legal strategy often becomes a long game of waiting for the court calendar to provide the exact leverage to ensure the insurance company finally acts reasonably.
It may sound strange for a “delay” to be viewed as a strong strategy, but your lawyer’s actions during this last phase are often a wait for a date: the trial date. A trial poses the most significant financial risk to the insurance company. If a jury returns with a verdict involving substantial injuries, the award will often be much higher than the insurer’s reserve for that claim. The amount may even exceed their settlement authority and cost them millions in fines and future premiums.
With a trial on the horizon, it is in the insurance company’s best interest to finally offer you a fair settlement. Insurers know that the risk is most significant when the courthouse doors are about to open. So, the final talks or serious settlement discussions, which unlock the maximum value, occur almost always as the weeks and days lead up to the trial date. When your lawyer shows they are willing to go the distance, you obtain the greatest leverage for maximum compensation. The extensive delay period is not a tactic to stall, but rather an essential component of this high-stakes negotiation tactic.
The modern legal landscape dictates that courts are heavily congested and perpetually backlogged. Even after the complicated discovery process is over, simply scheduling a formal trial date can take a year or longer. If you are questioning, “Why is my court date so far away? ” the simple answer is the personal injury trial backlog.
The reality is that courts prioritize cases. Criminal cases that affect a defendant’s freedom typically take precedence over civil matters, including personal injury cases. This means your case is in a queue controlled by judicial administration, not your lawyer. Your lawyer cannot just speed up the schedule. They rely entirely on the slow bureaucratic pace of the court. While they can ask the court for a quicker trial date, it is my experience that those requests are rarely granted unless there is a truly exigent circumstance, like terminal illness. The time spent waiting is not wasted. It is the time the legal process takes to catch up. During this time, your attorney prepares for trial and observes the other side.
To lessen the effects of excessive court activity, many jurisdictions now mandate or strongly encourage using some form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), like formal mediation in a lawsuit, before a case can go to trial.
Mediation is where both parties meet under the supervision of their lawyer and a qualified third party. It is not the mediator’s job to judge. Their role is to help with communication between you and the insurer. They will help facilitate a deal between your demands and their offers. This process is quite effective as it resolves most cases. However, having a professional mediator who will have to block his/her whole conference day further adds to the timelines for another 1 to 3 months. While this causes a further “delay,” it is an effort that is often part of the process that may settle the case without the tremendous cost, risk, and emotional toll of a trial. This scheduled pause in the clock is usually the last chance to settle before the enormous cost of litigation.
Find a Personal Injury Attorney Near Me
Ultimately, the extended timeline in your personal injury case is not a sign of stagnation, but a strategic legal plan. Delays are essential so that your lawyer has maximum leverage and time to calculate and obtain the full and fair compensation that you deserve from the at-fault party, one that will meet your future needs as well. Although the settlement process is deliberately slow, it is an important step toward protecting your best interests. Do not forget that the statute of limitations still applies in California. Thus, you will still want to take action on time.
Contact the Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney today at 424-231-2013 for dedicated, knowledgeable representation that protects your claim and maximizes your compensation.
