human test

A common question I hear plaintiffs ask is “How long will it take for my Personal Injury Lawsuit to settle?” or “What the average time a personal injury lawsuit takes?”

The only valid answer to this question is that statistically a personal injury lawsuit can average 2 to 3 years, but one must remember that no lawsuit is “average”. This means there is no expected timeframe to work with. You simply have to continue with the next step in your lawsuit and ensure that your lawyers and paralegals are working on it.

Another common question is “Why do personal injury lawsuits take so long?

The truth is that a case can be fairly “cut-and-dry”-i.e. the liability is obvious, the injuries are substantial and the insurance covers the damages-but the case can still draw out for many years. Why is that? Well, the obvious answer is money. It is in the insurance company’s best interest to extend the case as long as possible.

Let’s look at this logically: the insurance company is a profit-driven company. It has employees to pay. It has shareholders to make happy. It’s not easy trying to satisfy the dogs on Wall Street with greater earnings every quarter. In order to do that, it has to get creative and squeeze profits from areas it wouldn’t normally do so from.

One of the easiest places they’ve found to “squeeze profits” from is YOU-the plaintiff. Their policies might say that they’ll cover $100,000 in damages for the defendant, but the complex mathematical formulas on their computers already account for the fact that you are desperate and you’ll accept far less!

That’s right! They know that a certain percentage of plaintiffs are so poor and in such a bad financial situation (how could they not be after being out of work because of an accident) that they’ll accept 20% or even 10% of what is really due to them. This is where they can make that extra profit to satisfy shareholders!

One of the main questions I get is “Is it financially smart for me to get a personal injury lawsuit settlement loan?”

The correct answer depends on two factors:

1. Do you need financial assistance to survive? If your survival depends on having some cash from your settlement now, then it is probably smart to go ahead and get it. While the rates on lawsuit loans used to be incredibly high, recent competition has brought the rates down considerably. But you still have to be careful what company you deal with.

2. Will you get more money in the long run if you get a lawsuit settlement loan than if you accept a settlement now? Let’s look at an example. For simplicity, let’s say you are expecting $100,000 but it was going to take one year for you to get that settlement. Let’s say you have been out of work for a couple months, but you would be able to get back to work soon. The defendant’s insurance company knows you are probably desperate (as most are) and offers you a bogus $10,000. Out of desperation, you are very close to taking their offer. But then you discover a litigation finance company could give you a lawsuit settlement loan of $10,000 at 3% interest per month. This satisfies current financial demands by paying back-rent, catching up on car payments and providing food for your family until you can get back to work. By the end of the year, you get the $100,000 settlement. Of course, about $33,000 goes to the lawyer in attorney fees, and $13,448.89 goes to the litigation finance company (the $10,000 loan plus $3,448.89-3% interest compounded per month for twelve months). By taking the loan instead of the bogus settlement, you would have been able to wait a year for the full amount that was due to you and get $63,551.11 after attorney fees and interest (compare that to the $10,000 bogus offer you could have ended up accepting because you didn’t know your options!).

By this point, I hope this information has helped you decide if getting a personal injury lawsuit settlement loan is right for you.

Jason Argall is the Founder of My Legal Advance, a litigation finance company offering cash advances on plaintiffs’ lawsuits and structured settlements. He can be reached at info@mylegaladvance.com for any questions pertaining to litigation finance, lawsuit loans, structured settlements and personal injury pre-settlement advances.

Filed under: Story by Gerald