Why do personal injury lawsuits take a long time

There are many reasons a personal injury lawsuit may move slowly, they include: waiting for the injured person to complete treatment in order to afford them a complete financial recovery; it can take some time to get the medical records, have them reviewed, get the experts needed to show causation (the wrongful act CAUSED the injury), often each side will have different experts, they need time to review the case and then each attorney will want to take the deposition of the other's expert. In short, one reason for personal injury lawsuits to move slowly is that the attorney must coordinate with several other people: client, opposing party, opposing attorney, experts from various disciplines, and the Courts (many courts are already scheduling cases 2 or more years away). Also, depending on the court system, criminal cases have a higher priority than any civil case (because of the Constitutional right to a speedy trial, which applies to criminal cases but not civil cases), so in many jurisdictions (particularly in those that do not have different trial departments) the criminal cases slow the civil cases from getting to trial.

Take advantage of the extra time to work with your attorney, make sure he has all the information and material you can provide, make yourself available for meetings with your attorney to be taught how to handle yourself in a deposition or at trial. If you and your attorney use the time to be fully prepared, the wait will often be well rewarded.

The length of a case can be affected by many things. In some states there are not enough judges or courtrooms so everything is slowed. In some jurisdictions the courts set deadlines and timetables that are long, or allow parties (often the defendant) to obtain continuances. Initially a case requires investigation that, depending on the case, can take some time. In some personal injury cases attorneys need to wait until the injured party achieves maximum medical improvement to see what the case will be like and its value. Just getting a case to trial can often take 1, 2 or 3 years...longer in some places. Then after a trial there may be an appeal. Sometimes appeals aretaken duringthecase before trial if there is a ruling by the court that one party feels is erroneous. Unfortunately in some places it just takes a long time to see justice.