How Long Does a Personal Injury Lawsuit Usually Take?

Every personal injury case is unique, and how long a case will take will always depend on the specifics of that situation. Your Long Island, NY personal injury attorney will be able to give you a better estimate based on your specific circumstances, but the following is general information on how long these lawsuits usually take to resolve.

How Long Personal Injury Lawsuits Usually Take

National Averages

The Department of Justice does studies of legal cases prosecuted in the United States, and in their study of personal injury cases in the largest 75 counties in the United States, they found that the median time from filing the lawsuit to final disposition was 13.7 months. About 44% of all cases were resolved within one year, and by the two-year mark, 74% of cases were resolved.

For Cases That Go to Court

Most of these cases are resolved outside of court, but when they do have to go all the way to a trial before a judge and/or jury, it can significantly extend the timeline. According to the DOJ’s study, tort cases that went to a jury trial or a bench trial had a median processing time of nearly two years from filing to final judgment. Overall, jury trials take the most time, at 23 months, and bench trials are slightly shorter at 17.7 months. Car accident cases tended to resolve more quickly than other types of personal injury, while medical malpractice tended to take the longest.

For Cases That Don’t Go to Court

All of the statistics listed above are about cases where lawsuits are actually filed, but 95% of personal injury cases settle before any trial. Only 3 to 5% actually go all the way through the full trial.

What Makes Trials Last So Long?

There are a couple of factors that influence how long these lawsuits take, and one of the biggest is court backlogs. Once you have to start meeting in court repeatedly, the court’s schedule and how far behind they are will have a big effect on how quickly your case can move through. Other important factors include:

• Case complexity
• Severity of your injuries
• Discovery needs
• Pre-lawsuit negotiations (when they’re lengthy yet ultimately unsuccessful)

New York-Specific Timelines

The New York courts do not release information about the median disposition times for personal injury cases. However, the New York Unified Court System provides annual reports and a Caseload Trends Dashboard with overall civil caseload filings, dispositions, and pending cases.

The statute of limitations for most personal injury claims in New York is three years from the date of the accident, but shorter periods apply in some cases. Our New York courts, especially in urban areas like here in NYC, are often congested, so our timeframes are often on the longer end of the national averages.

Get Help From a Long Island, NY Personal Injury Attorney

No matter where you are in the process, and no matter how complicated the case, things will go most smoothly when you have a qualified lawyer on your side. Call us today at Miller, Montiel & Strano in Garden City, NY at 516-363-5003 for a free consultation. We’ve been protecting the people of Long Island and all of NYC for over 50 years.

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