Why Your Injury Case Is Taking So Long

Most people fire their lawyer over silence, not results. The complaint is almost always the same: it has been a year, nothing seems to be happening, and nobody will explain why. Usually something is happening, and most of the waiting is built into the system rather than chosen by anyone. Here is the map.

Stage one: treatment, before anything else

A case cannot be valued until your medical picture stops moving. Your lawyer is waiting for you to finish treatment or reach the point where doctors expect no further improvement, because a settlement demand made before that locks in a number based on injuries that may not be finished.

In a car case a second track runs in parallel. No-fault pays the first $50,000 of medical bills and lost earnings regardless of fault under Insurance Law 5102(a), but only if the paperwork is timely: written notice to the insurer within 30 days of the accident, bills within 45 days of treatment, and wage proof within 90 days, per the Department of Financial Services.

Stage two: if you are suing the City

Cases against a public defendant have an extra front end. You must serve a notice of claim within 90 days under General Municipal Law 50-e. The City may then demand a sworn examination under Section 50-h, and until you sit for it, you cannot sue. Meanwhile the Comptroller's office investigates and may settle, but its window closes once a lawsuit is filed or once one year and 90 days have run from the incident, as that office explains to claimants.

The volume explains a lot of the pace. The Comptroller's FY 2023 claims reporting counted 18,895 personal injury claims filed against the City in a single year, and the office reported 13,397 claims resolved for $1.94 billion the following year. Your file is one of thousands on one adjuster's desk.

Stage three: the lawsuit itself

Filing is the beginning, not the end. The summons and complaint must be served within 120 days of filing under CPLR 306-b. The defendant answers, the court holds a preliminary conference, and then comes discovery: written demands, medical authorizations, depositions of everyone involved, and a defense medical examination of you.

Discovery is where months disappear, and the honest reason is that it depends on other people. Hospitals take weeks to produce records. Witnesses move. Defense firms adjourn depositions. Multiple defendants mean multiple schedules, and every one of them gets a turn.

When discovery is complete, your lawyer files a note of issue placing the case on the trial calendar under CPLR 3402. That filing starts another clock: either side has 120 days to move for summary judgment under CPLR 3212(a), and briefing and deciding such a motion routinely adds several months.

Stage four: mediation and the trial calendar

Many New York courts route civil cases to mediation before trial, and in some counties a judge can send your case to a presumptive ADR program at almost any stage. Mediation is usually worth the delay, since it is the most common place cases actually resolve.

After that, you are waiting for a courtroom, behind every other case filed before yours. The state's caseload dashboard tracks filings, dispositions and pending inventory, and in the busiest counties the pending pile is the whole explanation.

What actually makes it slower

Gaps in your treatment, because they invite a fight instead of an offer. Unreturned calls for records or authorizations. An address or phone number your lawyer does not have. Unresolved liens discovered at the end rather than the middle. And a defendant with thin insurance coverage, which turns a simple case into a hunt for other responsible parties.

Keep in mind that the three-year deadline in CPLR 214 is the outer limit for starting, not finishing. A case filed in year three is only beginning at that point.

None of this makes silence acceptable. A firm that cannot tell you which stage you are in and what it is waiting for is a communication problem, not a scheduling one, and that is worth weighing before you sign with anyone.

If you are still choosing a lawyer, use our firm rankings to compare published case results. Then ask the firms you contact how they keep clients informed during a long case.

This article is general information about New York law, not legal advice for your situation.

Sources: Insurance Law 5102 · NYS DFS No-Fault FAQs · GML 50-e · GML 50-h · NYC Comptroller, Personal Injury Claim FAQs · NYC Comptroller, FY2023 Annual Claims Report · NYC Comptroller, FY2024 claims dashboard release · CPLR 306-b · CPLR 3402 · CPLR 3212 · Presumptive ADR Program · NY Courts caseload trends dashboard · CPLR 214