How long should my personal injury case take? part 1

I start this series about how long should my personal injury case take with your choice of your lawyer. I start here for two reasons, first this is the only aspect within your control and second it is the single most important factor in determining the speed of your case.

The first aspect of how long your case will take will depend upon how long it takes your lawyer to commence a lawsuit. In New York there is a three year statute of limitations for a lawyer to commence a personal injury lawsuit. That means the lawyer has three years from the date of accident to start a lawsuit or you will lose your rights even if you have a valid claim. (Note there are some exceptions ie infancy and insanity to name a couple.) Many lawyers will wait more than a year or even close to the three year limit before commencing suit. Theses lawyers may try to settle the case pre-suit to avoid the work and costs involved with bringing an action. If the case cannot be settled pre-suit then you have lost all that time the lawyer chose to wait. At Subin Associates it is our time tested philosophy to commence suit as early as possible. As soon as we have identified the responsible parties we will immediately commence a suit while we are simultaneously conducting our investigation. Frequently, we will be commencing a lawsuit within weeks of getting your case. (note we believe if the insurance company is willing to settle early it is still preferable to commence a suit as they know the have to pay or litigate). Just this aspect alone means a case handled by Subin Associates could be resolved 2-3 years faster than a case handled by another personal injury firm.

After a lawsuit is started the next step in a personal injury lawsuit is the defendant will respond to the lawsuit with whats called an answer. Along with the answer the defendant will serve discovery demands. These discovery demands will ask for HIPPA authorizations from you so the defendant can obtain your medical records as well as a document that will list all your injuries and claims you are making against the defendant. This document is called the bill of particulars. The case will not continue until the plaintiff's lawyer provides a response to these demands. Here again the speed of your case depends on the size of your lawyers firm and the amount of staff they have to do this work which is quite time consuming. A lawyer can let cases languish waiting to provide this discovery. We at Subin have dedicated staff to provide this discovery and generally have responses in less than two weeks.
Once your lawyer has provided discovery then the next step is depositions. Your lawyer needs to have the man power to have a lawyer available for your deposition. this is another reason why larger firm like Subin Associate can serve you better and resolve your case faster than many other law firms. Deposition delay can slow a case another year or more.

The next step is filing the notice of trial readiness this requires appropriate staffing and the lawyer to determine if the case is indeed trial ready. For example, has the lawyer retained all the appropriate experts or does he have to sue any additional parties that might be responsible for the accident? We at Subin prepare every case for trial from the beginning, although it is extra work for us week believe we get more substantial recoveries for our clients because insurance companies know if they don't pay what we want we are ready and willing to litigate every case.

The last step of this process is the trial itself. If your lawyer is not prepared to try the case they will continue to delay it in the hopes of reaching a settlement. If the lawyer cannot settle the case they will often refer the case to another law firm to try it. Many lawyers and law firms refer their cases for trial to Subin Associates. This switching of law firms adds additional delay. We believe it is better for the client to retain us initially as we process the case faster and more completely than non-trial related firms.