Car crashes rarely feel like a single event. They spill into days of medical appointments, phone calls, and questions nobody warned you about. From the lawyer’s chair, a claim is a sequence of timed decisions and evidence sprints layered on top of healing and money stress. The work is part detective story, part project management, and part negotiation. Results hinge on what gets done in the first two weeks, then on what is sustained over the next 6 to 18 months.
When people ask what a car accident attorney actually does, they tend to picture a courtroom. Most cases never go that far. The decisive moments often happen at a kitchen table, a collision shop bay, or a claims adjuster’s inbox. This is a grounded walk through that timeline, with the trade-offs and judgment calls that separate a solid claim from a shaky one.
The first 72 hours: triage that sets the tone
After a crash, the early hours are about safety and record-keeping. If the police respond and write a report, that document will anchor the liability analysis. When there is no police report or it is incomplete, everything else needs to be tighter: photos of the scene, contact information for witnesses, vehicle positions, and roadway conditions such as lighting, debris, or missing signage.
Medical attention is the next anchor. Emergency rooms focus on ruling out catastrophic injuries, not on documenting soft tissue damage or delayed symptoms. A common pattern: neck pain feels like stiffness on day one, then flares on day three. From the lawyer’s standpoint, the documentation trail matters as much as the pain. Delays in seeking care give insurers a hook to argue that symptoms are minor or unrelated. If you see a primary care doctor or urgent care within 24 to 72 hours and follow up consistently, your medical narrative holds together under scrutiny.
In parallel, a car accident lawyer opens the file and starts a notice chain. At minimum, that means notifying the at-fault driver’s insurer, your own carrier for med pay or uninsured motorist coverage, and any lienholders on the vehicle. If there is camera footage on a nearby business, a preservation letter goes out same day. With newer vehicles, telematics or infotainment data may record speed, braking, and seat belt use. That data can fade with time or battery drain, so early action helps.
Intake and the first strategy call
The intake is part interview, part fact audit. A good car wreck lawyer will press on details that feel annoying in the moment: your prior medical history, previous claims, medications, and whether you have posted about the crash on social media. This is not about fishing for reasons to decline the case. It is about eliminating surprises. Insurers have database access to past claims and pharmacy records that can surface inconsistencies during settlement talks, or later at deposition.
During the first substantial call, we map the claim into three lanes: liability, damages, and coverage. Liability asks who is at fault and how clearly that can be shown. Damages cover medical bills, lost income, property loss, and the harder-to-define human toll such as pain, limitations, or missed milestones. Coverage identifies which insurance policies can be tapped, in what order, and with which limits.
A simple rear-end collision with a clear police report looks straightforward until you add an at-fault driver with minimum limits and a client with a prior back injury. None of this is fatal to a claim. It just changes the sequencing of proof and which battles to pick.
Preserving evidence before it drifts
Evidence has a half-life. Skid marks wash away. Cell phone video gets deleted. Vehicles get repaired or totaled before an inspection. For significant crashes, I instruct clients not to authorize repairs until photographs and, if needed, an expert inspection are complete. In moderate to severe impacts, an accident reconstructionist can be worth the cost, especially when the other driver disputes fault or blames a phantom vehicle.
Modern cars record more than most people realize. Event data recorders, often called black boxes, can hold a few seconds of pre-impact speed, throttle, braking, and seat belt status. Accessing that data may require cooperation from insurers or a court order. The decision to pursue it weighs the cost against the likely dispute. In a side-swipe at low speed, it rarely moves the needle. In a high-speed intersection crash with serious injuries, it can turn a he-said-she-said into a chart that jurors understand.
On the human side, witness outreach matters most in the first week. People move, change numbers, or simply forget. A short, respectful call to confirm what the witness saw, followed by a written statement, can lock in helpful facts. If the witness feels hassled, they vanish. If treated like a neighbor doing a favor, they usually stay cooperative.
Medical care as both healing and proof
Medicine leads, law follows. That said, the cadence of care deeply affects a claim. Insurers and juries alike equate gaps in treatment with recovery. If you skip physical therapy for two months because life got busy, the adjuster will not care that scheduling was hard or that your job went into overtime. The file shows a gap, and the argument arrives: you must have healed, or it was not serious.
Good attorneys help clients navigate practical barriers. If transportation is an issue, ask about clinics closer to home or providers who offer telehealth for follow-up. If costs are the obstacle, explore medical payments coverage under your policy, letters of protection with providers who accept delayed payment, or community resources. The aim is continuity. Notes from each visit should track symptom changes, work limitations, and functional impacts like sleep disruption or trouble lifting a child.
In cases with complex injuries, coordination across providers matters. An orthopedic surgeon, a neurologist, and a pain specialist can easily talk past each other, leaving a record that looks disjointed. A simple summary letter from a treating physician that connects the dots can be more persuasive than a stack of disorganized charts.
Property damage and the early adjuster dance
Property claims move faster https://www.cityfos.com/company/Mogy-Law-Firm-in-Memphis-TN-23095381.htm than bodily injury claims. Insurers want the car evaluated, repaired, or totaled, then closed. This speed can work for you or against you. If the car is totaled, the fight is over the actual cash value, options, mileage, and comparable sales. If the client added aftermarket equipment or recently replaced major components, gather receipts and photos. Without documentation, those items tend to vanish from the calculation.
Diminished value claims arise when a car is repaired but loses market value simply because of its collision history. Not every state recognizes them, and not every fact pattern supports them. Late-model vehicles with significant structural repairs are often the strongest candidates. The call is tactical: is the claim worth the time and appraisal cost, or is it better to allocate energy to the bodily injury portion where the dollars may be larger?
Rental coverage is the small battle that looms large in daily life. Keep the rental within the insurer’s guidelines. If the shop delays repair for reasons outside your control, document it. Adjusters are more cooperative when the paper trail explains why a rental ran long.
Building the damages story: numbers and narrative
Money in injury cases does not arrive in one bucket. It is a stack: past medical bills, anticipated future care, lost wages, reduced earning capacity if lasting limitations exist, and non-economic damages including pain, loss of enjoyment, and the ways an injury interferes with daily routines. Each category has different proof.
For medical bills, insurers often scrutinize reasonableness. They compare charges to usual and customary rates or to what health insurers would have paid. That is frustrating but predictable. Where possible, obtain provider bills that show CPT codes and explanations of services. If a hospital lien threatens to devour the settlement, a car wreck lawyer negotiates it later in the process. Timing matters. Lienholders are often more flexible after a settlement number is in view.
Lost income should be specific. A letter from an employer with dates missed, wage rate, and any light-duty accommodation attempts goes further than a vague assertion. For freelancers, business ledgers, 1099s, and client statements are key. Think in ranges when work is seasonal. A short calculation showing how last year’s comparable months performed gives adjusters something concrete to accept.
Non-economic damages turn on credibility. I ask clients to keep a simple pain and activity log for the first 90 days, then taper as appropriate. Not a novel, just a few lines noting sleep quality, medication use, missed events, or tasks that required help. Later, this anchors testimony and reduces the risk of memory gaps.
The demand package: timing and composition
A demand is not a form letter. It is a curated file. In the typical case, we wait until the client reaches maximum medical improvement, or at least a medically stable point, so the numbers are not guesses. Settling too early risks leaving future care unpaid. Waiting too long can make insurers suspect overtreatment. For most soft tissue injuries, a demand goes out between 90 days and nine months. For surgical cases or complex recoveries, a year or more is common.
A strong demand package includes a liability summary tied to evidence, a medical narrative that a layperson can follow, itemized damages with supporting records, and a closing number that is ambitious but defensible. Adjusters read dozens of these. Clarity wins. A few well-chosen photos can outperform pages of adjectives. Brevity helps when the facts allow it. In a disputed liability case, longer analysis can be worth it.
The opening demand amount is strategic. Too low, and you box yourself in. Too high, and the adjuster dismisses you as untethered. Experience with that insurer and that specific office matters. Some carriers plug numbers into software that assigns ranges based on injury codes, treatment duration, and medical billing amounts. Knowing how to present the record to fit within fair ranges, without inflating or gaming, keeps credibility intact.
Negotiation: what moves numbers and what doesn’t
Once an offer comes in, negotiation becomes a mix of math, precedent, and pressure points. There is a wide band of normal, but a few themes recur.
Adjusters often carve down bills, either based on internal benchmarks or alleged unrelated treatment. If a prior injury enters the picture, they may attribute a portion of the current complaints to that history. The response is not outrage, it is proof. A treating physician’s note that the current MRI shows new findings, or that the prior condition was asymptomatic for years, can shift the discussion.
Gaps in treatment almost always cost money. If life logistics caused a gap, own it and explain. Courts and jurors live in the real world. Clear explanations backed by records beat silence.
Policy limits drive ceilings. If the at-fault driver carries a $25,000 bodily injury limit and your documented damages far exceed that, the adjuster cannot pay what they do not have. The path then moves toward underinsured motorist coverage from your own policy, or to investigating other liable parties such as an employer if the driver was on the job, or a bar in a dram shop jurisdiction if intoxication is proven. Sometimes, sending a policy-limits demand with a short, reasonable deadline and clear evidence of catastrophic injury puts the carrier at risk of bad faith if they refuse to pay. That is a sharp tool used sparingly and with careful documentation.
When a settlement appears within a fair range, attention turns to liens and net recovery. A $60,000 settlement that leaves the client with $15,000 after fees and medical liens may not be acceptable. This is where a car accident attorney earns trust by negotiating reductions with providers, health insurers, or ERISA plans, and by walking through the math before anyone signs.
When to file suit
Most cases settle without a lawsuit, but some should be filed early. Indicators include entrenched liability disputes that will not yield to more records, lowball offers far outside reasonable bands, or a defendant who is dodging service or evidence preservation. Filing stops the statute of limitations clock and unlocks discovery tools. It also adds cost and time.
Discovery is the grind: interrogatories, document requests, depositions, and sometimes independent medical exams. The goal is to tighten the story, not to wage war. For the client, deposition preparation is crucial. A simple rule set helps. Answer the question asked, do not guess, take your time, and resist the urge to fill silence. The best deposition testimony is plainspoken and consistent with the medical record.
Filing suit does not guarantee trial. Many cases resolve after depositions, when both sides have a clearer view of credibility. Mediation is common. A good mediator reality-tests both sides. Success often depends on arriving with a settlement plan already sketched: the minimum acceptable net to the client after liens and fees, the talking points on the strongest facts, and a willingness to pause if emotions start steering decisions.
Insurance wrinkles that alter the timeline
Every claim sits inside a web of policies. A few patterns recur often enough to watch for them early:
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage can bridge the gap when the at-fault driver’s limits are low. The technical choreography matters. You typically need the at-fault carrier’s tender in writing before accessing your own coverage, and your carrier may have consent rights before you settle. Missing these steps can forfeit coverage. Med pay coverage, if available, can relieve pressure during treatment by paying providers directly regardless of fault. Coordination with health insurance helps avoid double payment and lien tangles. Think of med pay as a short-term bridge with straightforward documentation. Workers’ compensation shifts the calculus when the crash occurs on the job. Workers’ comp pays certain benefits quickly but creates a lien on third-party recoveries. The dance becomes three-way: the comp carrier, the liability insurer, and your own UM/UIM if needed. Clear communication prevents one side from derailing the others.
Policy language also controls deadlines for notice and proof of loss. A quiet file for six months sometimes reflects a procedural snag rather than bad faith. Persistent, documented follow-up is not glamorous, but it prevents routine claims from stalling.
Case studies from the trenches
A delivery driver was rear-ended at a light. Clear liability, moderate vehicle damage, neck and shoulder pain. Physical therapy for eight weeks, then a two-month gap because the client switched jobs and lost easy appointment times. The insurer offered a number that barely covered medical bills. We gathered a work letter showing overtime requirements and late shifts during the gap, plus updated therapy notes when the client resumed care. The offer moved by 40 percent. Not a windfall, but a fair outcome given the record.
In a high-speed T-bone at a rural intersection, the at-fault driver denied running the stop sign. The scene had no cameras, and the police report was inconclusive. We secured EDR data from both vehicles and pulled county maintenance records that showed a recently obscured stop sign due to tree overgrowth. A local business had a camera facing the side street that barely caught a reflection pattern we could time-stamp. Reconstruction favored our client. Settlement arrived just before a scheduled deposition of the other driver.
A pedestrian case hinged on damages more than fault. The client had prior knee issues and used a brace. After the crash, an MRI showed a meniscus tear. The defense argued degenerative change. The orthopedic surgeon wrote a concise letter explaining how the tear pattern aligned with acute trauma rather than wear. We added before-and-after testimonies from a coworker and a neighbor about the client’s walking habits. The record became coherent and persuasive. The claim settled within a range both sides could defend.
Common mistakes that slow or sink claims
Most pitfalls are simple, which is why they recur.
- Social media undercuts credibility. A single photo of a weekend hike during treatment becomes Exhibit A. Keep posts bland or private, and assume adjusters will see them. Talking to adjusters without context leads to casual statements that read poorly later. Early in a case, the safest approach is minimal factual information and a referral to counsel once retained. Authorizing repairs before documentation erases evidence. Snap comprehensive photos first. For significant cases, wait for a professional inspection. Ignoring mental health effects leaves value on the table and delays recovery. If sleep, anxiety, or mood changes appear, ask for help and let your record reflect the reality. Letting bills go to collections complicates resolution. If you cannot pay, tell your lawyer early. Many providers will pause collections activity when they know a claim is active and a letter of protection is in place.
How long it takes and why
Clients want a date. The honest answer is a range. Straightforward injury claims with clear liability often resolve in 3 to 8 months, assuming steady treatment and responsive insurers. Cases with surgery, disputed fault, or complicated insurance layers can stretch to 12 to 24 months. Lawsuits add time: discovery alone typically takes 6 to 12 months, plus court schedules, plus pretrial motions. Trials, if they happen, may arrive two years after the crash in busy jurisdictions.
Delays are not always bad. Settling before you know whether a shoulder will require arthroscopy can leave you short. On the other hand, dragging a modest case out for 18 months rarely increases value. A seasoned car accident attorney calibrates pace to the medical arc and the policy landscape, not to arbitrary milestones.
Fees, costs, and the net that actually matters
Most personal injury lawyers work on contingency. The fee is a percentage of the recovery, often rising if a lawsuit is filed. Costs are separate: medical records, filing fees, depositions, expert witnesses, and travel. Good practice is to explain expected costs early and to provide updates when litigation ramps up. One reason to push for a pre-suit settlement in mid-value cases is cost control. A $20,000 expert report to chase a $50,000 delta rarely makes sense.
The number that matters is the net to the client. If the gross settlement feels satisfying but the net disappoints, trust erodes. Before accepting an offer, I draft a simple distribution sheet: gross amount, attorney fee, costs to date, medical liens or balances, and projected net. Seeing the math avoids buyer’s remorse and keeps expectations realistic.
What a client can do to help their own case
You do not need to build a legal brief. You do need to be a good historian and a consistent patient. Save bills and EOBs. Keep a modest symptom and activity log during the first months. Show up to appointments. Tell your providers the truth about prior conditions and current limitations. If work restrictions are recommended, get them in writing and give them to your employer. If your address or phone number changes, tell your lawyer immediately. The small administrative habits add up.
When frustration rises, ask questions. It is your case and your life. A car accident lawyer should translate the process without jargon and adjust strategy to your goals, whether that means speed, maximum recovery, or minimizing risk.
The quiet parts that matter most
If you watch enough hearings, you start to believe that cases turn on zingers or dramatic exhibits. In reality, most claims are won or lost in the quiet work. A preservation letter sent on day two that saves a video. A therapist’s note that documents sleep disruption and how it affects childcare. A respectful call to a skeptical witness who decides to cooperate. A timely reminder to an adjuster that a policy limit demand expires Friday at 5 p.m., paired with the records that justify it.
The process looks bureaucratic from the outside, but it is built on judgment. Knowing when to order an expert report and when to save the money, when to advise patience with treatment and when to push for resolution, when to file suit and when to keep negotiating, these are the calls that come from years of watching how insurers and jurors behave. That is what you hire when you bring a car accident attorney into your corner.
When the timeline ends
A claim ends with a release and a check, or a verdict. Even then, it doesn’t truly end until liens are paid, balances cleared, and the client feels they can move forward. In strong cases, the legal recovery helps close a chapter. In harder ones, the money is partial relief and the work of recovery continues.
Either way, the path makes more sense once you see the map. The steps are not mysterious, and the timing is not arbitrary. Inside a car accident lawyer’s process, the timeline is about stacking small, right decisions so that when the big decisions arrive, they are easier.