- How long will my injury claim take?

Hi everybody, my name is Warren Whiteknight, I’m an injury lawyer and one of the partners here at Bergeron Clifford.

This week on Ask an Injury Lawyer we’re gonna deal with the question I get all the time – how long does an injury law claim take?

The standard answer is two to three years or more. However, complicated cases can take longer and I’ve had some that have taken four, five and six years. I’ve had some claims that have settled within the first six months to a year. Although both of those end ranges are pretty uncommon two to three years is typical.

Part of the reason claims take two to three years is that you need to wait until someone’s injuries are known and they’ve done what we call “crystallized”, which is that they have healed as  they’ve reached their new normal or that it’s clear that someone’s not going to get better before you can give them settlement advice. With this you can get information from doctors and other professionals involved about what the future looks like. We can get the accountants involved to talk about what their long-term income loss looks like and the value of the other financial losses the person injured is going to suffer. The delay in the court system is also a factor and the time that it takes to work through the various steps of the court process, sometimes up to a trial, but even just through the first stages when the court process can help encourage the parties to come and settle.

Thank you very much for tuning in with us today!