Lawyer Alex Benedict Explains Why Some Car Accident Cases Take a While

It's impossible to put a number on the length of an average car accident litigation case. It could last for years, for all you know. This isn't just because the judicial system is swamped with a massive backlog or the fact that there are too many cases and too few judges to handle them. Rather, you can't put a number on how bad the accident is.

Lawyers like Alex Benedict do everything they can to keep the ball rolling, but there are some circumstances beyond their control. One example is the maximum medical improvement (MMI); lawyers can't just ask their injured clients to get well immediately. They must wait until he or she has fully recovered from her cuts and bruises to gauge the implications.

Even insurance companies play the waiting game before approving claims. For them, MMI must be achieved to help calculate the overall medical cost. Even if doctors tell their patients that the latter would be better in a few months, estimates aren't generally acceptable, especially when treatment is still ongoing. On top of that, MMI is subjective.

Speaking of insurance companies, their unwillingness to settle claims could also drag a case for long periods. They want to make sure that the injuries are bad enough to justify the amount being asked of them. As a result, lawyers must delve deeper into the facts of the case, which could certainly take a while. They have no reason not to pull out all the stops at this point.

If you don't like the long wait, you could always settle things off-court. As personal injury cases like car accidents are usually low priority among other civil cases, many judges would recommend off-court mediation. Both the plaintiff and defendant parties, including their lawyers, would meet outside the courtroom in hopes of reaching an amicable settlement.

An off-court settlement could take days at most, but it beats years of waiting in line at your local courthouse. You can trust lawyers like Alex Benedict to exhaust all options of settling personal injury cases if it means reaching an agreement. If an off-court settlement means a satisfactory end to a struggle that could take years otherwise, it's worth a shot.