If you’ve been injured in an accident, one of the first questions on your mind is probably the simplest one: how long is my case going to take? It’s a fair question, and it deserves an honest answer. Attorney Matthew McLain of Turner-Monahan, PLLC, who has more than 20 years of experience handling personal injury cases at our firm, offered his perspective on what really determines how long a case takes to resolve.
The Honest Answer: It Depends
If you’re hoping for a single, clean answer, Matthew McLain will be among the first to tell you it doesn’t exist. “Personal injury cases can take anywhere from a couple of months to over a year and a half,” he explains. That’s a wide range, and it reflects just how different one case can be from another, even when the underlying accident seems similar on the surface.
This is part of why our team encourages every client to have a realistic, individualized conversation with an attorney early on, rather than relying on a general timeline they may have heard from a friend or read online. Every personal injury case carries its own set of circumstances, and those circumstances are what ultimately set the pace of the case’s clock.
What Actually Causes Case Delays
What determines whether a case resolves in a matter of months or stretches on for well over a year? According to Mr. McLain, it generally comes down to two factors. “Each case is unique, but there are generally two factors that impact how long it takes to resolve a personal injury case: the types of injuries and whether liability is disputed,” he says.
The first factor, the nature of the injuries, matters because a case cannot be fairly resolved until the full extent of someone’s medical recovery is understood. Settling too early, before the long-term impact of an injury is clear, can leave compensation unpursued and unclaimed. The second factor, disputed liability, adds an entirely different layer of complexity. When the at-fault party or their insurer pushes back on who caused the accident, resolving the case often requires extensive investigation, evidence gathering, and sometimes litigation before any resolution is reached.
A Tale of Two Cases
To put these factors into perspective, Attorney Matthew McLain shared two contrasting examples from his own experience.
In one case, a client was bitten on the hand by a dog that had previously bitten two other people. The injuries required medical treatment but thankfully healed well and caused no lasting damage to the client’s hand. Because the injuries were well-documented and liability was clear given the dog’s history, this dog bite case moved through the process relatively quickly.
Compare that to a case Mr. McLain handled involving a serious car accident in which the injured individual suffered a brain injury. In that case, the defendants disputed the severity of the injury and even claimed that the injured person had caused the crash. With both the extent of the injury and the question of fault contested, the case required extensive discovery and thorough trial preparation, and it took well over a year to resolve.
These two examples show why no two personal injury timelines look the same, even though the underlying legal process is similar.
What Delays and Details Mean for Your Case
If you’re currently facing a personal injury claim, the most useful thing you can do is get an honest, case-specific assessment rather than relying on a general estimate. Matthew McLain’s experience reflects a broader truth we see across every case we handle: the timeline is shaped far more by the facts of your specific situation than by any universal rule.
Having an experienced attorney evaluate your case early on can help you understand what factors are likely to affect your timeline, whether that’s the nature of your injuries, questions about liability, or both. That clarity can make a difficult process feel at least a little more manageable.
Let’s Talk About Your Case Today
If you’ve been injured and want a clearer picture of what your personal injury case might look like, Turner-Monahan, PLLC is here to help. Our attorneys are ready to review your situation and give you honest, straightforward answers. We primarily help clients in Fort Worth, but we can handle cases throughout other parts of Texas, so reach out today to see if we can help you. Dial (817) 623-0129 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation today.
