What Actually Happens After You File an Injury Claim
It’s natural to assume that once you’ve filed an injury claim, the hard part is over. You’ve survived an accident, experienced the stress of filing all the paperwork, and now you’re just waiting on a check to arrive. This is not how it works. The reality is, it’s what happens next that complicates the process and knowing what will come makes a world of difference on how the story ends up.
Insurance and Initial Contact
Typically, the first thing to happen when you file a claim is that the insurance company has a timeline to acknowledge your request. It can be anywhere from 15 to 30 days for them to get back to you with a review, this is state-dependent. They basically have a set timeframe to assign your case to an adjuster and start their initial review. Don’t expect them to reach out immediately. They’ve got their own questions to ask and probably have several other cases ahead of yours as well.
When you do finally hear from them, it’s likely a standard request to get a recorded statement of what occurred. This is where many people falter, assuming that the casual phone call is just that and not a literal word-for-word transcription with legal weight behind it should there be any discrepancies. Having veteran Los Angeles personal injury lawyers guide you through this part can help secure an appropriate answer without accidently derailing your claim.
The Investigation Process
After the adjuster gets his or her ducks in a row with this basic information, they attempt their investigation. This means obtaining medical records, they may want copies of police reports or incident reports, and depending on witness involvement, they may submit other statements into the mix. This process can take weeks on its own due to getting all medical information but becomes especially longer if there’s any ongoing treatment in play or questions about who really was at fault.
The more complicated the claim, the longer it can take. But as an insurance company, they are in no rush. There’s no motivation for them to get this moving quickly nor is there any punishment if it drags over months. Instead, time plays against the victim who has mounting medical bills and missed work hours. It’s almost intended to make victims so desperate to settle when the time comes because they’ve been beaten down by the process.
When You Get Your First Offer
Eventually, they’ll reach out again with an initial offer. This is almost never the final offer they’ll settle on and in fact, for various reasons, it’s usually much lower than anyone anticipated. The insurance company is essentially taking a gamble on an initial low offer, one that they feel will get someone’s attention but not enough to accept it without question. Many people hear that number and think it sounds fair when in reality, they’re unsure how to calculate how much their claim is actually worth.
Medical bills are just part of the equation. There are lost wages, future medical complications from now on injuries, pain and suffering (depending on severity of injuries) and in some rare cases, property damage. Initial offers tend to simply cover the immediate medical expenses and nothing else, insurance companies bank that most people won’t push back or push back for something they’ve not yet defined.
What Happens When You Reject the Offer
If you reject that offer, things go two ways; they either accept your rejection or request why. They’ll challenge every aspect of your claim and need documentation for every dollar claimed. This back-and-forth can go multiple rounds where both sides start making movements towards the middle.
However, this agreement is not guaranteed. If neither side can convince the other of their merits and a common ground fails to be reached, the only option is going to court. This means strict guidelines about each party needing to respond to each other’s notes for consideration through discovery, depositions and extensive documentation. The expense of going to court does not happen with settlement negotiations, though ultimately, most cases settle before trial ever takes place.
What Determines How Long It All Takes
Time factors all depend on responsibility; if there’s no question who caused an accident, it’s easier to get moving on things; if there’s serious injury involved but doctors are assessing whether someone has reached maximum medical improvement before making a diagnosis, that’s going to take time. Some cases involving multiple people or too complex details can drag on for a year, sometimes more.
But what tends to shock most people is how much waiting there is involved. Waiting for medical records, waiting for the adjuster to review them, waiting for responses regarding what they proposed as a settlement demand. There becomes no way to rush the situation because it’s only ever going to move as quickly as insurance companies want it to move.
The Conclusion
In time, everything comes to a head, either a settlement amount is agreed upon or someone goes into trial for a jury determination. Settlement is always preferred since it’s quicker, cheaper and doesn’t risk what a jury may determine, but getting there is always going to take time.
The reality is that once you’ve filed your claim, that’s only half the battle, it includes everything that comes afterward, the investigation, offers (or lack thereof), negotiations (or lack thereof), that makes it worth it or not in the end. But when you prepare from the beginning and understand how everything else plays out after the fact, it doesn’t come as overwhelmed shock when you least expect it while you’re trying to navigate the injury claim process already strained from what’s already happened.
