December 9, 2018

You signed with a lawyer months ago. You are still going to physical therapy, the bills keep coming, and you have not heard much lately. So you start to wonder: is anything actually happening with my case? It is the question we hear most often, and the honest answer usually surprises people. Here is what is really going on during the pre-suit phase of your accident case. The Reyes Firm Wondering What’s Happening With Your Case? You deserve a straight answer about where your claim stands. Had a bad day? Contact Us Now MMI When your claim can finally be valued Maximum Medical Improvement Permanent Finding needed for pain and suffering Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2) $10,000 PIP limit that runs out first Fla. Stat. § 627.736 2 Years Deadline that runs during pre-suit Fla. Stat. § 95.11 Pre-suit is the stage of your case before any lawsuit is filed, and it is where the large majority of personal injury claims are resolved. It is also the stage that feels the slowest, because most of the work happening is not the kind you can see. Understanding what is going on behind the scenes tends to make the wait a lot less stressful. How is my case going during pre-suit? In most cases, the honest answer is that it depends on whether you are still treating. If you are still going to doctors, your case is doing exactly what it should be doing, which is waiting. That is not your lawyer ignoring your file. It is your lawyer refusing to guess at what your injuries are worth before your doctors know. The instinct is understandable. Silence feels like inaction. But in pre-suit, the medical picture drives everything, and until that picture is complete, there is nothing to negotiate with. What actually happens during the pre-suit phase? A lot more than most clients realize. While you are focused on recovering, your legal team is generally working through the following: Investigating and preserving evidence. The police report, photographs, witness statements, and any video are gathered early, while they still exist. Establishing liability. Your lawyer builds the case for why the other party is at fault, before the insurer starts shaping its own version. Identifying every available policy. That includes the at-fault driver’s coverage, your own PIP, and any uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. Managing your PIP benefits. Florida’s $10,000 in Personal Injury Protection is usually exhausted quickly, and your team coordinates what pays after that. Tracking your treatment and collecting records. Every visit, bill, and diagnosis becomes evidence, and records are requested continually as you treat. Watching the filing deadline. The clock never stops, so your lawyer is protecting that date whether or not you are hearing from them weekly. Most of that work produces no news for you. It is documentation, phone calls, and records requests. Real progress in pre-suit rarely looks dramatic. 💡 Did You Know? In a Florida car accident case, you generally cannot recover anything for pain and suffering unless a doctor determines your injury is permanent within a reasonable degree of medical probability, or you suffered significant permanent scarring, disfigurement, or loss of an important bodily function. That medical finding is a legal requirement, and it is one more reason your case waits on your doctors. Source: Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2). What is Maximum Medical Improvement, and why does everything wait for it? Maximum Medical Improvement, or MMI, is the point at which your condition has stabilized and your doctors do not expect meaningful further recovery. You may still have pain. You may still need ongoing care. MMI does not mean you are fine. It means your medical picture is finally clear enough to put a number on. Until you reach MMI, nobody can answer the real question. If you settle at month three and need a surgery at month nine, that surgery is your problem, not the insurance company’s. A release is permanent. There is no reopening it, no matter how much worse things get. That is the whole reason a good lawyer will tell you to be patient rather than take an early check. Why is my case taking so long? Usually because your body is still deciding how it is going to heal, and that is not something anyone can rush. A soft-tissue injury may resolve in a few months. A back injury that leads to injections, and eventually a surgical consult, can take a year or more to stabilize. Your case timeline is really your medical timeline. Other things can add time too. Disputed liability, multiple at-fault parties, a commercial insurer, or a serious injury that requires specialists all extend pre-suit. If your injuries are severe enough to require long-term care, a life care plan may be needed to project future costs, which takes additional time but can substantially change what your claim is worth. ⚠️ Deadline Warning: Under Florida Statute § 95.11, you generally have two years from the date of your crash to file a lawsuit, and that clock keeps running through the entire pre-suit phase. Being in negotiations does not pause it. This deadline was shortened from four years in March 2023, which is exactly why pre-suit is more time-sensitive than it used to be. What happens when the demand goes out? Once you reach MMI, the case shifts gears quickly. Your team assembles a demand package containing your complete medical records and bills, proof of lost wages, evidence of liability, and documentation of how the injury has affected your life. That package goes to the insurer with a deadline to respond. Then negotiation begins. The first offer is almost always low, and a few rounds of back and forth are normal. If the insurer will not offer fair value, the next step is filing suit, which is when your case leaves pre-suit and enters litigation. Filing a lawsuit does not mean a trial is coming, since many cases still settle afterward, but it does signal that your lawyer is prepared