- If someone else's carelessness caused your injury,
you wanna know how long it's gonna take to settle your case.
There are many factors that can affect
the time it takes to settle.
In this video, I'm gonna show you real settlements,
and I'm gonna show you how many of these factors
affected the time it took to settle these cases.
I'm also gonna show you some things that may
decrease the time it takes to settle your case.
Stay tuned and watch the entire video
so you can see all of these settlements
and all of these factors that affected
the time it took to settle these cases.
JZ Helps (a Florida injury law firm).
Most personal injury cases settle,
however there is no guarantee that your case settles at all.
So this entire video assumes that your case
actually has value that would warrant a settlement.
If there's more insurance coverage available
than the value of your case,
this could prolong and take longer time to settle the case.
This is because the insurance company
has less pressure on them to settle the case
because they'll likely be able to settle it
within the limits,
as opposed to if your case is worth more
than the insurance company limits.
There's the chance that if you were to get a verdict
for higher than the insurance company limits
they would have to pay above the insurance limits,
which they hate doing.
This is an example of just that.
Where the insurance available limits in this case
were a million dollars.
This truck that a truck driver was driving
hit my client who was on a motorcycle.
Now, the value of my client's claim was about $445,000,
and it took 11 months to settle.
But one of the reasons why it took
that time to settle was because
the limits, million dollar limits,
were a lot higher than the $445,000 value of the case,
so the insurance company did not have
a lot of pressure to quickly settle the case.
The client treated for 11 months,
and it settled right around that time.
Another factor that allowed that
claim to settle within 11 months,
and not much longer was the fact that the liability
on the other driver was pretty good,
meaning the other driver was largely at fault.
The other driver was driving a truck.
My client was coming in the opposite direction.
The truck failed to yield the right of way, made a left.
They collided.
My client flew off the motorcycle,
he suffered a tibial plateau fracture with surgery,
he also fractured a finger,
had a pin put in, the pin was later removed from his finger.
Now, one factor that can affect
the time it takes to settle a case
is if the insurance company,
such as the insurer of the truck in that case,
now AIG,
has in-house attorneys meaning there's attorneys
already on their staff that they're already paying.
That can prolong the time it takes to settle a case
because when you're negotiating with the insurance company,
they know if settlement can't be reached
they don't have to hire outside attorneys
and pay them more money.
Another factor that affects the time that it takes
to settle a case is the last date of your medical treatment.
In this case, I said the case settled
around 11 months after the accident.
One of the reasons why it took that amount of time to settle
in order to get fair value for my client's case
was we needed to wait 'till he was finished treating.
If you don't wait 'till you're finished treating
and you settle the case,
you're not gonna get full value in most cases, of the case.
One thing that may be able to help your case settle sooner
is if you're dealing with a good insurance company.
In that case, the insurance company's now AIG.
They have a very good reputation for fairly paying claims.
So that case settled in, like I said, in about 11 months
however, had we drawn a worse insurance company,
such as Progressive,
who pays claims worse than AIG,
the time it took to settle and get fair value for the case
may have taken longer because they,
around that same time, would have likely offered less money.
Another factor that can affect
the time it takes to settle a case
is whether the insurance adjuster
has all of your medical records,
bills and other documentation that you need
to get fair value for your case,
or to try to get fair value for your case.
What happens is the adjuster
needs to have all of this medical information,
records, bills, MRI films, all that stuff,
lost wage information, a lot more,
so that they can evaluate the case,
write down in their system how much they think it's worth.
It gets sent up to their supervisor
who has to sign off of it.
The larger the case, the more levels it has to go up.
The smaller the case, sometimes adjusters
have authority to settle the case on their own.
Usually about $10,000 or less.
But if you wait to give the insurance adjuster
all of your bills and other documentation,
all you're doing is you're gonna prolong
the time it takes to settle to get fair value in most cases.
Now, remember when you go to the hospital
you have a hospital bill, radiology bill,
emergency physician's bill, all these bills are separate.
You need to get the crash report,
the fire/rescue report,
you need to get all these documents
otherwise there's a good chance you're gonna get
less money and the time it takes
to settle your case is gonna take longer.
Help the adjuster help you get money for your case.
Quickly.
Also, the sooner you get the adjuster
medical records and bills,
the sooner they can set the reserve
which is the amount of money they're setting aside
to pay you for your case.
Reserves take time to get changed
so if there's a new development in your case
it takes time for the insurance company
to assign more money, to put aside more money for your case.
That's another reason to get this adjuster
all your records as soon as possible.
On the other hand,
if your case is worth more than
the insurance company limits,
that puts significant pressure on the
insurance company to settle your case,
at least in Florida.
This is a MRI of a tibia fracture,
the lower leg fracture.
The tibia is this long big bone right there.
And the case value was worth about $325,000 the total case
but certain parts of the claim,
which I'm gonna get into in a second,
settled rather quickly because the value of the case
was a lot higher than the available insurance limits.
If the insurance company doesn't settle within the limits
and your case is worth more than the limits,
they can face excess exposure
and have to pay above the policy limit
if they could've and should've settled
within the policy limits.
This is the car from the case I was describing
where my client fractured his tibia
his lower leg, and had a rod put in it.
In that case, the value of the claim was
somewhere around $225,000,
and the rental car driver had $100,000
of liability insurance.
The fact that his claim was worth
more than the $100,000 limits
put pressure on Philadelphia Insurance Company,
who was the insurer for the rental car,
to pay the case.
They wanted to just pay the $100,000
and get out of the case.
And that case settled just within a few months
of me representing the gentleman.
But again, the main reason it settled so quickly
was because the value of the case was here
and the insurance limits were less.
In that same case where my client
had rented the rental car,
he purchased the $100,000 of uninsured motorist insurance.
Same scenario.
My client's case was worth $225,000,
the uninsured motorist limits were $100,000
they hesitated in paying,
I filed a civil remedy notice,
which is what you need to do in Florida
in order to make the insurance company
pay more than the limits
if they could've and should've settled within the limits
and your case is worth above the limits.
And it was only after I did that
where they hired an attorney
and they decided it was in their best interest to pay.
But that case also, that part of the claim also
settled within just a few months of me representing him.
The third part of that case was against the United States,
the Federal government.
And the reason why that case took several months to settle
was because, against the United States,
if you have a claim,
you need to wait six months for them to deny
or offer to pay the claim before you can sue.
So they didn't even make an offer
within the first six months.
We sued them.
Just understand that if your case
is against the Federal government
or the state of Florida, or a city,
the case may take longer to settle
because they generally have six months
to make an offer and you cannot sue within that time.
Slip and fall cases may take longer to settle
because most businesses,
which is where most people slip and fall,
and have a personal injury claim,
have high insurance limits.
Usually around a million dollars or more,
and most cases are worth significantly
under a million dollars.
This is an actual photo that was taken
in a slip and fall case at a supermarket
that we settled for $300,000.
But it took two years or so to settle the case
and again, the reason why it took so long
was my client had not finished treating.
So, he had a lot of treatment,
and again, like I said earlier,
you wanna wait until your treatment is done in most cases
before you settle the case.
Unless the insurance limits are very low.
But again, supermarket slip and fall cases
or any accident case at a business can
generally take longer to settle
because they have that million dollar insurance limit.
His case was worth $300,000, which is what we settled at it,
and a lot less than a million.
The insurance company did not face
any bad-faith exposure if they failed to pay.
In this case, the gentleman claimed that this fall
aggravated a pre-existing achilles tendon,
which is right there,
tear, which became worse from the accident.
And he ended up needing two skin grafts.
If you're dealing with a large company
like Publix, Winn Dixie, Disney, Costco,
or any other large company,
there's a chance that the case is
gonna take longer to settle
because these companies are likely self-insured,
meaning they pay the money out of their own pocket,
which they don't like doing, generally.
And it may take longer to settle that case
as opposed to insurance companies are used to paying
from the insurance premiums they've been paid for,
the premiums for the insurance,
so they generally are more willing
to pay out cases sooner, all things equal.
In that supermarket case that I was discussing,
the supermarket denied liability,
so we filed a lawsuit,
which again, I mentioned
that that generally delays settlement,
although it's generally in your best interest
in certain times to file a lawsuit.
But regardless, my client still had a lot of time treating.
And you remember earlier on I said you need to wait
generally if there's high insurance limits,
to complete your treatment before settling
in order to get fair value.
This is the truck that rear-ended my client
in a case that settled for $210,000.
It took a little less than two years to settle.
One of the reasons why it took under two years to settle,
or close to two years to settle the case,
was because the insurance limits were two million or so,
and my client's injury was worth about $200,000 or so.
He claimed that the truck accident
caused a tear in his labrum,
which is right there.
Or, it aggravated his labrum pre-existing injury.
He also claimed a herniated disc from the accident.
But another reason why it took so long to settle
was because his treatment was over a year.
Now, in that case I said that the
insurance policy limits were two million dollars or so,
but the company that caused the accident had a,
what's called a self-insured retention,
meaning they pay the first $250,000 or so.
So my client had a personal uninsured motorist
insurance on his vehicle.
We made a claim against that uninsured motorist
insurance for $10,000.
Progressive was the insurer,
they initially refused to pay,
saying there's plenty of insurance from the truck.
I said that the truck,
due to the fact there was a self-insured retention,
is considered uninsured under Florida law.
I demanded that they pay.
I sent them a civil remedy notice
which I filed after them first arguing
and telling me that I had no right to make the claim.
They paid the $10,000 very quickly.
I settled another case that took
21 months to settle for $210,000.
When my client was eating at a restaurant,
the booth tipped up and he fell to the floor.
We claimed that the booth should have been secure.
And he fractured his scaphiod,
which is a bone in the wrist right there.
He ultimately needed two surgeries,
but one of the reasons why that case
took 21 months to settle was,
he treated for a very long time, over a year.
And also the fact that the insurance limits were very high.
They were a million dollars,
and the value of this case was $210,000,
which didn't put any pressure on the
insurance company to pay quickly.
Another reason that it may have taken 21 months
or so to settle was because
in any case where you're injured,
you need to prove that the restaurant or any premises,
or anyone who was responsible for your injury,
that they were negligent.
That they were careless.
And, we needed to establish that the restaurant knew
or should have known that the booth
had a problem with it prior to the incident.
Now, although the restaurant had surveillance,
as you can see through the video,
the yellow part that's highlighted,
that is my client on the floor.
You can see that the surveillance
was very, very poor.
So before the insurance company paid out $210,000,
they wanted to get my client's testimony that,
of what happened rather than just paying out the money.
Now, had the surveillance been very clear
and showed exactly what happened,
that may have resulted in a sooner settlement.
Another thing that may cause a case to settle sooner
is if you file a lawsuit,
and you set the case for trial and get a trial date.
As the trial date approaches closer and closer,
the case becomes more real to the insurance company,
and they have a fear of getting a verdict
against their client at trial and having to pay it.
This case settled for $210,000 one month before trial.
And now, this is just a stock photo,
but the bottom line is the insurance company
started to feel the heat
because the trial date was quickly approaching.
This is a car that my client was driving
in a case when another car blew a red light
and T-boned her.
She fractured the larger bone in her forearm
and had to have surgery.
The at-fault driver had a personal
insurance policy of $100,000.
Now, my client's case was worth $200,000.
The other driver had $100,000 policy.
This put pressure on USAA,
the other driver's personal auto insurer,
to settle the case.
Now, the driver of the other car was working
at the time of the accident,
so she had through her employer a million dollar policy.
And, like I said, the value
of my client's case was $200,000.
So, to get that extra $100,000 took several months
because the limit was so high of Old Dominion,
who was the employer's insurer.
Old Dominion's insurance policy of a million dollars
was so much higher than the $200,000 value of the case,
they faced very little pressure to settle quickly.
Cruise ship accident cases may take
longer to settle because the cruise ship
is paying out of its pocket for
generally all of your claim,
or most of your claim,
and then they have large insurance policies.
So there's no bad-faith pressure that they experience.
In cruise cases,
they generally have their own lawyers
that they're already paying a salary to,
so they don't have the fear of,
if you file a lawsuit,
having to pay an outside attorney,
and pay them by the hour.
Although as cruise cases progress,
they may hire outside attorneys to represent them.
When your health insurance or Medicare/Medicaid
pays money for your case,
they're entitled generally to get the money back,
or at least some of the money back.
You need to know what that lien amount is
so that you can a) provide it to the insurance adjuster,
who is ultimately going to be paying you;
but also so you know how much
you're gonna receive in your pocket.
If you don't know that lien,
you could settle the case,
and the lien could eat up the entire settlement,
which is what you don't want.
So, not knowing the lien
could delay the time it takes to settle a case.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
Please subscribe to my channel.
Please like the video.
Please comment, let me know what you liked about the video,
what you don't, if you agree with what I said,
if you disagree with what I said.
Please watch our other videos.
My name is Justin Ziegler of JZ Helps,
a Florida injury lawfirm with my office in Miami.
Have a great day.
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