My name is Griff Tonkin. I'm one of the partners here at the Arthofer & Tonkin Law Offices. Today, I want to take the opportunity to talk to you about the reasonable time frames for resolution of your personal injury case.
In simple terms, we get asked by our clients all the time, how long is this going to take? And the only honest answer that we can give a client at the beginning of representation is, we don't know. You see, it's critical that we have excellent information about what exactly happened to you in this accident. We've had cases too numerous to count over the last 15 years of doing only personal injury work, where our clients thought they were all better, but then it turned out they weren't.
You see, it's your medical recovery that really guides your personal injury action. And sometimes your injuries can take months or even years to resolve. If we were to make a mistake and resolve your case too early, you would lose the opportunity to make a claim for damages that you haven't yet incurred for future treatment, future care.
Let me give you an example. I have one client, a lovely, sophisticated client. She was great to work with because if we needed information or data, she was always so quick to give it to us.
But she was also very keen to resolve her personal injury case. She was really pressuring us to get it done as quickly as possible. She just wanted it off the list and out of her hair.
Well, we approached that very cautiously. We advised her against early resolution. Nevertheless, she wanted to proceed.
Well, we were getting ready for an important proceeding that could have brought about a settlement in that case. And that settlement wouldn't have necessarily included all of her future medical care because she just hadn't fully recovered. Well, fortunately for the client, that proceeding fell apart.
Couldn't get the parties together and it created a delay. A few months after that delay, our client ended up needing a very serious spinal surgery that was directly related to this incident. Because of the delay, several more months went by, surgery several more months after that.
We were ultimately able to resolve the case with an excellent understanding of what our client's future care needs were. So it's important when you're a personal injury client that you be patient. Patient with yourself, make sure you're getting the medical care you need.
Patient with the medical system. It's not always easy to get in, get referrals, diagnostic studies, specialists, and then follow the advice of your experienced, skilled personal injury attorney and resolve your case when it's the right time. We may need to, for example, get expert witnesses involved to talk to us about what your future wage loss is going to be, future medical treatments likely to be, and the costs and fees associated with that future medical care.
That's why it's so important to be patient. Some personal injury cases can resolve within months, but some take years, even multiple years. So follow the advice of a good personal injury attorney like those of us here at Arthofer & Tonkin Law Offices.
Call us today for a free consultation on your personal injury matter.
