Why Personal Injury Cases Take So Long

Here at Willis, Willis & Rizzi we recently were discussing the old comic strip “Popeye” and there was a character named “Wimpy” who was always looking to eat hamburgers. One of the characters famous lines was “I’ll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today.” And that is the kind of world we live in with insurance companies and personal injury claims.

Trial courts typically set trial dates way out in the future (think years). If we are negotiating with an insurance company about a claim, we either can come to some sort of settlement, or we can’t. Unfortunately, we can’t force the insurance company to pay a claim without going through the legal process. That means filing a lawsuit and now we are subject to the court’s timeline. Different courts have different timelines but, in our experience, they are all stretched out and getting longer. We’re seeing trial dates up to 2 years out.

The trial date is the hammer that hangs over the insurance company’s head – that says “on this day” a jury is going to render a verdict with a compensation number, and the insurance company is going to have to pay that number. However, insurance companies look at these trial dates that are years in the future and say, “what’s our rush to deal with this now?” At Willis, Willis, & Rizzi we see cases that settle on the morning of the trial, during trial, or the Friday before a Monday trial! When the trial is imminent, that is when the insurance company is motivated to settle the case.

Another reason personal injury cases can take so long is that insurance companies have reduced the number of staff who are responsible for dealing with personal injury claims. When we talk to the claims staff at an insurance company, they are so busy they are only dealing with the imminent cases that are coming up for trial in the next two or three weeks. Until your case bubbles up to that point, the insurance company is not paying much attention to your case.

This situation can lead to frustration and unhappiness with clients regarding how long it takes to reach a settlement in a case. While the team at Willis, Willis, & Rizzi is doing everything we can do to move the case along, the insurance company has hired defense attorneys whose job is to push that trial date even further down the road. Much of our role as personal injury attorneys in these situations is to eliminate any excuses that defense attorneys can use to push the case out even further. Because when a trial date gets “kicked” or “bumped” it’s not for a day or two, it’s for months or even a year!

Consider also that insurance companies make a great deal of money by investing their insurance premium dollars. The fact is insurance companies are making money by delaying paying your claim as long as possible.

Also, insurance companies deal with thousands of claims at any given time. You are dealing with one – yours. Insurance companies know that some of the claims against them will simply disappear for a multitude of reasons like they don’t get filed timely in the court, people die or go to prison. Sometimes people get hard up for money and will take anything the insurance company offers.  So, from their standpoint – what is the rush?  Why morally it would be good of them to resolve claims fairly and quickly, from a business standpoint, time and delays are on their side.  These are some reasons why personal injury claims can take so long to settle.

Often, we are looking for ways to show the responsible insurance company that the claim will only get more expenses with the passage of time. If we can do that, then we are in a better position to get the case resolved sooner rather than later.

If you need help with a personal injury claim, contact Willis, Willis & Rizzi today at 330-535-2000 or fill out the inquiry form on the page to speak to an attorney today.