in

How Quickly Will You Get Your Money in a Car Accident Settlement?

After a car accident that results in injuries, your well-planned-out life can turn into a nightmare. Often victims are faced with depleted savings and a never-ending pile of household and medical bills.

 

Under such pressure, you can’t wait to get your check when your claim goes through the process, and you strike a deal with the negligent party. Unfortunately, settling does not mean you will walk from the negotiations table or the courtroom with money in the bank. It can take several weeks to get your check.

 

Common Reasons Why Car Accident Claims Are Delayed

Before you reach the point where you are waiting for your check, you could have spent a year or even two to get your car accident claim to this point. But not all cases are the same. Some can settle quite early.

 

Delay may sound alarming, but it is not always the case. Sometimes, the delay can be for your good and can be orchestrated by your attorney if they feel it is necessary for a fair outcome. How long a lawsuit takes will depend on the seriousness of the case in terms of the severity of injuries and the recovery period.

 

Other common reasons that could cause a car accident claim to drag on include:

 

● The time needed by your legal counsel to gather relevant evidence
● A tactical move by your team to have a better insight into the extent of injuries
● The complexity of the investigations into the case
● The length of the negotiations process
● The time required to get a trial date if a case doesn’t settle in the negotiations

Collecting Your Check after Settlement

After the at-fault party agrees to settle during the negotiations stage or the court gives its verdict at trial, you are guaranteed to get your money. But the time it takes to get the money in the bank can vary based on how fast the post-settlement process goes.

Below is a basic outline of the post-settlement process:

 

Signing the Settlement Release 

After a settlement is reached, you have to sign a release declaring that you no longer have the right to sue the defendant for further damages resulting from the accident.

 

Your Lawyer Gets the Check

After signing the release, the insurer may take some time to verify and forward your check to your attorney. The period between signing the release and mailing the check to your attorney can vary from one insurer to another. Still, your lawyer can use the available legal means to ensure that the insurer does not exceed the timelines.

 

Taking Care of Liens

If your settlement has medical liens, they may hold up your proceeds until the liens are cleared. A lien is a third party’s right to a portion of your payout, for example, Medicare benefits received in terms of hospital bill payments. Medicare liens can take a considerable time to resolve. So, you could be looking at a couple of months in delays.

 

The Attorney Fee

After liens are out of the way, your attorney will get their cut from your settlement, after which they release the money. When taking care of liens and attorney fees, most lawyers place the proceeds of a settlement in an escrow account.

 

When the money is in an escrow account, you know and see you have it but can’t spend it until all necessary fees and other contingency-based agreements are honored. Once your lawyer takes care of all pending claims on your payout, you get your check.

 

On average, the period between settling your case and getting money in your hands is four and six weeks. If you have not received your portion of benefits in six weeks, you may need to contact your lawyer for updates on the delay.