How Long Can I Expect to Wait until I Receive My Car Accident Settlement Check that My Tampa Car Accident Lawyer Helped Me Win?

Tampa car accidents can put financial pressure on your family’s budget. Having to pay for unexpected medical bills as well as perhaps dealing with the loss of income that may result when the injuries from auto accidents prevent you from working or reduce the number of hours that you can work. As a result, many of the clients of our car accident attorneys in Tampa want to know when they can expect a settlement check after their car accidents. The answer is that every situation is different. Without knowing the details of any particular situation it is generally not possible to say when a client can expect a settlement check.

But there are guidelines and situations that can be discussed that can give you a better idea of what to expect if you’re involved in a Tampa automobile accident. For example, there is one type of situation that a check can be expected immediately. That is where the injuries from the car accident are much more significant than all the insurance available to pay for the total damages caused by the injuries. Let’s say that someone suffers a catastrophic injury in a car accident, but the total amount of available insurance including both the at fault party's bodily injury coverage and the injured persons uninsured motorist coverage, is $20,000. One can expect that the insurance companies will immediately tender their policy limits. That is because of something known as bad faith. Under the law of bad faith, if an insurance company fails to tender its policy limits when they “could have and should have”, they could potentially be responsible for an amount much greater than their policy limits because they failed to protect their insured [or you in the event of uninsured motorist coverage] and refused to pay out the policy limits when they had the opportunity.

These situations are generally rare. More often the person injured in a Tampa car accident will have to wait until they have achieved what is known as maximum medical improvement or MMI before a demand for monies can even be submitted to the insurance company. How long can it take for someone injured in Tampa car accidents to get to MMI. Personal injury attorneys will tell you that it is different for each person depending on many different factors. Although some may be able to reach MMI in a matter of weeks, for others reaching that point of maximum medical improvement may take years.

Once the demand is submitted though, your personal injury law firm will begin negotiations with the insurance companies that are involved in the car accident claim. Those negotiations may take several months as the insurance company requests additional information and the claim is evaluated. Filing a lawsuit in the event that the insurance company delays the negotiation process is always an option, but is not preferred. That's because a lawsuit increases the attorneys fees charged to you and may result in further delay in resolving the claim rather than quickening the resolution.

Your personal injury attorney should keep you apprised of the negotiations so that you are well aware of what's going on. At some point the insurance company will draw a line in the sand and claim to offer no more money to you without filing a lawsuit. Whether or not a lawsuit is appropriate is a very personal decision. It depends on numerous personal factors which may include whether or not a certain amount of money today is more valuable to you than a lot more money in the future. For example, there may be pressing bills or other issues that make having the money in your pocket today more important than having even more money available to you in the future. Also, everybody has various risk tolerance factors that'll have to be considered. An experienced auto accident personal injury attorney can advise you as to whether or not the insurance company’s offer is adequate for the injuries that have occurred. Although sometimes the insurance company may provide more than what would be appropriate given the injuries from your Tampa car accident, more often they provide much less than appropriate. Nonetheless, in general, unless there are significant questions regarding who was at fault, the insurance companies usually offer an amount that is kind of in the middle. Whether a lawsuit is appropriate for you or not is something that will have to be discussed with your attorney at length. If you decide to file a lawsuit with regard to your auto accident claim, you should realize that it is possible that it may take years before there is a conclusion to the claim and any hope of receiving a settlement check.

As you can see, it is not possible to predict how long it will take for a settlement check to come without knowing the details of your particular car accident case. Even then an experienced auto accident injury attorney can only offer guidance with regard to what to expect. What is more important is that you choose a law firm that aggressively pursues your claim so that you can receive your settlement check as soon as possible in an amount that you find acceptable.

At our personal injury law firm, our Tampa auto accident attorneys are dedicated to making sure that your case is handled aggressively so that we minimize any possible delay in your receiving the monies that you need to pay for your medical bills, family needs, as well as providing you reimbursement for the loss of enjoyment of life that a car accident can cause. If you'd like to learn more about how our auto accident attorneys handle car accident claims to minimize any delays in your receipt of a settlement check, please contact our personal injury attorney law firm.