Are you thinking about filing a personal injury lawsuit? If so, you might be wondering, “How long does a personal injury lawsuit take?”
The answer is…it all depends! The personal injury lawsuit timeline is going to be a little bit different for everyone.
But the process of a personal injury claim is going to be, more or less, the same for most people. So you should learn about how this process is going to play out prior to filing a personal injury lawsuit.
This will be the basic timeline that you’ll go through when you file a personal injury claim.
Table of Contents
You Start by Finding a Personal Injury Lawyer
Before you can officially file a personal injury lawsuit, you’re going to need to get a personal injury lawyer on your side. They’ll be able to walk you through the entire personal injury lawsuit process from start to finish.
Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too difficult to track down a reputable personal injury lawyer. With more than 1.3 million lawyers in the U.S. today, there are bound to be at least a few good options in your general area.
Your Personal Injury Lawyer Launches an Investigation
Once you have a personal injury lawyer in your corner, you should ask them, “Do I have a lawsuit?” They’ll see if your specific case has any limitations and then look into it further if they think you might have a strong enough case.
You’ll need to provide your personal injury lawyer with a whole host of information throughout the course of their investigation. It’ll help them start to build a case on your behalf.
Your Personal Injury Lawyer Attempts to Reach a Settlement
More often than not, personal injury lawsuits get settled out of court before they ever go to trial. It’s why the answer to the question, “How long does a personal injury lawsuit take?”, is typically “not long.”
After finishing up their investigation, your personal injury lawyer will usually try to get your case settled out of court, if possible. It’ll save you a lot of time and money while enabling you to get your hands on the settlement money that you think you deserve.
Your Personal Injury Lawyer Takes Your Case to Trial
If your personal injury lawyer isn’t able to work out a settlement deal out of court, they’ll then proceed to take your case to trial. This is when the personal injury lawsuit timeline might start to drag out a little longer than usual.
It’s not uncommon at all for some personal injury lawsuits to take months and sometimes even years. You should mentally prepare yourself for this part of the process if you have to go through it.
So, How Long Does a Personal Injury Lawsuit Take? Try to Find Out Today
As you can see, there is no surefire answer to the question, “How long does a personal injury lawsuit take?” You might be able to reach a settlement deal in your personal injury case in just a few weeks—or you could be looking at a process that will take years in some cases.
You should speak with a personal injury lawyer today to see how long they think your personal injury case will take. It’ll allow you to decide what course of action you want to take next.
Get more legal tips by reading through the other informative articles found on our blog.