My Lawyer Is Taking Too Long?
What to do if my lawyer is taking too long? You should know if your lawyer is taking too long, you have legal options. Importantly, its good to understand what you can do when you feel stuck in this situation.
Generally, if your lawyer is taking too long, it could be for a good reason. Good reasons for the lawyer’s delay include waiting for available court dates, lengthy negotiations, court delays, medical treatment to finish, receiving medical records, finding absent parties, and more. Bad reasons for delay include the lawyer having too many cases, considering your claim as low priority, missing deadlines, being understaffed, incompetence, and more.
Depending on the reason, there are different ways to manage the delay. If there is a valid explanation, it might be best to simply wait. However, if you have a hunch that the reason is bad, you should examine the situation more closely. One way to get help is to get a free second opinion from our law firm. Sometimes, if we agree we can request your file from your current lawyer and review what is happening. You can also ask your lawyer yourself to send you a copy of your claim file in the mail, email, fax, or other method.
Importantly, for many kinds of legal claims, it is very easy to change your lawyer without extra cost. If you have a civil legal claim for financial settlement, there is a good chance that you can easily choose to get a different attorney. Unfortunately, if you paid your lawyer upfront out of your own pocket, it can be more difficult to switch lawyers. For example, if you have paid a lawyer to represent you in a divorce, child custody, criminal, immigration, or many other categories.
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Nevertheless, if you believe it is necessary to change your lawyer, you can ask your lawyer how that process would work. Even if they are not required to give you a refund, the lawyer might still choose to do so in order to keep a strong reputation, online reviews, and more. Also, the court judge has a lot of power in these situations.
Please remember that there could also be a very good reason why it appears that the lawyer is taking too long to settle your case. If the attorney is providing quality work and trying the best, it could be a good choice to keep the lawyer. Sometimes, legal claims take a long time in ways that the lawyer has less control over.
For example, the lawyer could have requested specific documents and be waiting to receive them. Also, the courthouse could set calendar dates that are far away. The courthouse can be very busy and not have many available times for your case in the near future. Furthermore, the opposing lawyer on the other side of the legal claim can be causing the delays. For example, many insurance companies are in no rush to pay money and love to spend a lot of time on the claim.
Reasons why legal claims take so long include:
- Court delays
- Lack of available court dates
- Lengthy negotiations
- Finding witnesses
- Waiting for people
- Time to heal your injuries
- Gathering of evidence
- Evaluating seriousness of injuries
- Ongoing medical treatment
- Waiting for available doctors / surgery
- Lawyer having too many cases
- Seeing your case as low priority
- Having higher priority claims
- Missing deadlines
- Understaffed law firm
- Incompetence
- Missing statute of limitations
- Malpractice & fraud
- And much more.
Call us for a free consultation and let us know about the facts of your situation. (800) 400-5050.
Is My Lawyer Taking Too Long?
It is important to know what is causing this delay. Your lawyer could be waiting for some event or person that is out of the lawyer’s control. For example, in a personal injury or workers compensation case, the correct medical expert might not be available until a later date. Additionally, there might be legal witnesses that need to be contacted, scheduled, and be available.
Documents are a very important of most legal claims. Your lawyer could be waiting on the police department, medical office, therapists, and other professionals to prepare written reports. For example, the attorney could be waiting for wrongful death police reports that sometimes take months to be prepared. Additionally, the lawyer must wait until these documents are all mailed and completely received.
Your lawyer could be waiting for you to get all the medical treatment you need. Sometimes, if your case involves serious or lifelong injuries the exact amount of medical treatment needed is difficult to determine. For example, it can be a big decision for you to get surgery, skin graphs, amputation prosthetics, brain surgery, finish psychological treatment, and more. Deciding how much medical treatment will be needed and finishing those services can take months or years.
Some people might require life care and personal assistance for unknown lengths of time. Also, if there is loss of income due to an injury affecting a person’s job, sometimes it is required to calculate how much money that person would have made in their lifetime. This can be a tough task and require experts and other lengthy procedures.
Importantly, the lawyer might have engaged in malpractice or fraud. Lawyers have a duty and obligation to communicate with their customers about important aspects of their legal claim. You might be able to sue the lawyer for malpractice if the lawyer was negligent.
We would love to speak to you today! Changing your lawyer can be a simple thing to do. We are available 7 days a week for a free first consultation. Call us today to speak with a lawyer. Call (800) 400-5050.