Nobody can give you a date, and anyone who does is guessing. What can be described honestly is what actually sets the pace.
The main driver is your treatment, not the legal process. A claim should not be valued until it is clear how the injury heals, because the things that change the number — infection, nerve symptoms, whether a scar needs revision — declare themselves over weeks and months rather than days.
So the sequence is roughly:
- Treatment, to completion or stability. Weeks for a clean single wound. Longer where there is surgery, infection, or a scar that may need revising.
- Records and demand. Collecting the medical file and putting the claim together — usually a few weeks once treatment is done.
- Negotiation. Typically several rounds.
- Resolution, or suit. Most claims resolve here. Filing happens when the number is not fair, and filing does not mean a trial follows.
What makes a case longer:
- Surgery, or staged scar revision
- A child, where a scar changes as they grow and revision may be staged into adulthood
- Disputed comparative fault — the percentage is where most real argument happens
- A “Bad Dog” sign raised as a defence
- Multiple possible defendants — a landlord, a property manager, a business — each with separate insurance
- No insurance, which turns the case into a collectability question
What makes it shorter: a single clearly liable owner, adequate cover, complete treatment, and no serious fault argument.
The one clock that is not flexible. Florida’s filing deadline — work from two years — does not pause because negotiations are ongoing, and the other side has no obligation to remind you. Claims that die on the deadline usually die in friendly negotiations that ran too long.
Do not let speed cost you the claim. A quick settlement before treatment is complete is a bet that the injury will not get more expensive. That bet is frequently lost, and the release ends the matter permanently.