After a car accident, it’s common for weeks to go by while you wait for an insurance adjuster to return your calls, review your medical records, approve repairs, or make a settlement offer. Adjusters might say your claim is “still under investigation,” ask for documents you’ve already sent, or promise to call back but never do. Some delays are understandable, since serious injury claims need time for investigation and medical review. But other delays can put financial stress on you as you deal with bills, missed work, and uncertainty. If it feels like the insurance company is stalling, remember that their timeline does not affect the legal deadline for protecting your Illinois car accident claim.
Our Hoffman Estates Auto Accident Lawyer can find out why your claim is delayed, figure out what information the insurance company really needs, talk directly with the adjuster, make sure important evidence is saved, and get ready to take legal action if negotiations stall. Waiting too long for an adjuster is usually not a good idea, especially since Illinois has strict deadlines and evidence can disappear over time.
Why Do Car Accident Insurance Adjusters Delay Claims?
Not every delay means an insurance company is acting improperly. An adjuster may legitimately need time to obtain the police report, interview drivers and witnesses, examine photographs or video, review medical records, verify insurance coverage, investigate comparative negligence, or determine whether treatment is related to the collision. A serious injury claim may also need time to develop because settling before doctors understand the likely prognosis can result in an injured person accepting substantially less than the full value of the claim.
Problems start when a real investigation turns into needless delays. Adjusters might keep asking for the same records, ignore your calls or emails, switch adjusters without telling you why, say they never got your documents, or leave your settlement request unanswered for a long time. Sometimes, they keep asking for more information but don’t explain why it matters for your claim.
Delay can also give the insurance company leverage. An injured person who is out of work, facing medical expenses, paying for transportation, or trying to replace a damaged vehicle may become increasingly willing to accept a low offer simply to obtain money. That financial pressure is one reason accident victims should understand what they can do when an adjuster stops making meaningful progress.
Illinois Law Addresses Improper Insurance Claim Practices
The Illinois Insurance Code identifies conduct that can constitute an improper claims practice when committed without just cause and under the circumstances the statute describes.
Under 215 ILCS 5/154.6, improper practices can include failing to acknowledge claim communications with reasonable promptness, failing to maintain reasonable standards for prompt investigation and settlement, refusing to pay without conducting a reasonable investigation, and failing to attempt a prompt, fair, and equitable settlement when liability has become reasonably clear. The statute also addresses delaying a claim by requiring duplicative forms or verification and failing to provide a reasonable explanation for a denial or compromise offer.
Those provisions do not mean every slow claim automatically creates a separate lawsuit against an insurance company. They do show, however, that Illinois insurance law expects carriers to investigate and handle claims reasonably rather than leaving them unresolved without legitimate justification.
Illinois Administrative Code Part 919 also establishes required claims practices. Among other things, 50 Ill. Adm. Code 919.50 provides that an insurer should affirm or deny liability within a reasonable time and generally offer payment within 30 days after liability has been affirmed when the amount is determined and undisputed.
There Is Not One Universal Deadline For Settling A Bodily Injury Claim
Accident victims sometimes hear that an insurer must settle every car accident injury claim within 30, 40, or 60 days. Illinois law is more complicated than that.
The Illinois Department of Insurance explains that insurers must provide necessary claim forms within 15 working days after they are requested. Illinois administrative rules also impose particular requirements relating to delays in automobile property damage claims. For example, an insurer must provide a reasonable written explanation when a third-party property damage liability claim remains unresolved for more than 60 days after it was reported.
Those property damage rules should not be confused with an automatic deadline requiring an insurer to settle every bodily injury claim within 60 days. A serious bodily injury case may legitimately remain open much longer while treatment continues and damages become clear.
The more useful question is whether the insurer has a legitimate reason for the delay and whether waiting is still in the injured person’s interests.
Ask The Adjuster Exactly What Is Holding Up The Claim
When an adjuster repeatedly says the claim is “under review,” the injured person should ask for a specific explanation. A vague response does little to move the case forward.
Useful questions may include:
- Has liability been accepted, or is fault sill being investigated?
- Is the insurer waiting for a police report, witness statement, video, or other evidence?
- Are medical records or bills missing?
- Is the insurer questioning whether treatment was caused by the accident?
- Is there a dispute about insurance coverage?
- Has the demand package been assigned for evaluation?
- Does the adjuster need additional documentation of lost wages?
- Is a supervisor or claims committee required to approve the settlement?
- When should a substantive response reasonably be expected?
Written communication can be particularly useful because it creates a record of what was requested, what was submitted, and what the insurer said was still outstanding. If the adjuster’s explanation changes repeatedly, that history may become important later.
Do Not Stop Medical Treatment Because The Adjuster Is Delaying The Claim
The insurance company’s pace should not dictate appropriate medical care. An injured person should continue following reasonable medical recommendations based on the advice of treating providers rather than waiting for the liability adjuster to decide what treatment it considers acceptable.
Stopping medically necessary treatment because the insurance company has not paid can create additional problems. The insurer may later point to the treatment gap and argue that the injury improved, that further care was unnecessary, or that later symptoms were caused by something unrelated to the crash.
Financial problems can make ongoing treatment difficult, and those problems should be discussed with counsel. Depending on the circumstances, health insurance, medical payments coverage, or other resources may be available while the liability claim remains pending. The appropriate options depend on the insurance policies and facts involved.
Be Careful About Settling Just Because You Are Tired Of Waiting
Delay can create pressure to accept the first meaningful offer the insurance company makes. That can be dangerous when the injured person’s medical condition is still developing.
Most personal injury settlements require the claimant to sign a release that permanently resolves the claim. If the person later requires additional treatment, surgery, or extended time away from work, the settlement ordinarily cannot simply be reopened because the injuries turned out to be more serious than expected.
For that reason, a fast settlement is not always a good settlement. At the same time, unnecessary insurer delay should not be confused with the legitimate time needed to understand the extent of the injuries. A Hoffman Estates Auto Accident Lawyer can help determine whether further medical development is necessary or whether the carrier simply has no legitimate reason for refusing to evaluate the claim.
An Adjuster Cannot Extend The Illinois Statute Of Limitations
One of the most serious dangers of allowing an adjuster to stall is that settlement discussions do not necessarily stop the statute of limitations.
Under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, many Illinois personal injury actions must generally be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrued. Different deadlines or procedural rules may apply in cases involving governmental entities, minors, wrongful death, or other circumstances, which is why the deadline should always be evaluated based on the specific claim.
An insurance adjuster can continue discussing the case while the legal filing deadline approaches. An assurance that the adjuster is “still reviewing” the claim should never be treated as a guarantee that additional time exists to file a lawsuit.
If the applicable limitations period expires, the injured person may lose the right to pursue compensation regardless of how strong the underlying case might otherwise have been. This is one reason experienced attorneys track legal deadlines independently from insurance negotiations.
Filing A Lawsuit Can Change The Claim From An Insurance Process To A Legal Process
Accident victims sometimes believe they must wait until an insurance company formally denies the claim before filing suit. That is generally not how an ordinary Illinois negligence claim works.
When appropriate, the injured person may file a lawsuit against the party allegedly responsible for causing the collision. Once litigation begins, formal legal procedures replace much of the informal back-and-forth that occurs during the insurance claim process.
A lawsuit can permit attorneys to obtain evidence through written discovery, depositions, subpoenas, document requests, and other procedures authorized by Illinois law and court rules. It also creates a court-controlled timetable that does not depend entirely on whether an adjuster decides to return a telephone call.
Litigation does not necessarily mean the case will go to trial. Many cases settle after suit is filed, sometimes because formal discovery gives both sides a clearer understanding of liability, medical causation, and damages.
What If The Insurance Company Says Liability Is Still Under Investigation?
An insurer may legitimately investigate how a collision occurred, particularly when the drivers give conflicting accounts. The carrier may review police reports, vehicle damage, photographs, traffic-camera recordings, witness statements, electronic data, or other evidence before making a liability decision.
The question is whether the investigation is actually progressing. If the adjuster has had the relevant police report, photographs, witness information, and other evidence for months but still cannot identify what remains unresolved, further inquiry may be warranted.
Hess Injury Law Firm can conduct an independent investigation rather than depending solely on the insurer’s work. This can include identifying witnesses, seeking available video, examining roadway conditions, preserving vehicle evidence, obtaining crash reports, and determining whether additional evidence may establish how the collision occurred.
Call Our Hoffman Estates Auto Accident Lawyer When The Insurance Company Keeps Delaying
An injured person should not have to spend months calling an insurance adjuster only to hear that the claim remains “under review.” Some investigations require time, particularly when the injuries are serious, but unexplained delays can create financial pressure and threaten the injured person’s ability to preserve evidence and meet important legal deadlines.
Hess Injury Law Firm represents people injured in car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, and other traffic accidents, as well as families pursuing wrongful death claims. Founding attorney Matt Hess has handled thousands of insurance claims and hundreds of lawsuits during more than sixteen years of practice. His prior experience working for a major multi-line insurance carrier gives the firm valuable insight into how insurance claims are evaluated, delayed, negotiated, and defended.
Contact our Hoffman Estates car crash lawyers by calling (847) 708-4377 to receive your free consultation. Our attorneys can review what the adjuster has done, determine whether important information is actually missing, identify the applicable statute of limitations, evaluate liability and damages, and explain whether continued negotiation or filing a lawsuit may provide the better path forward.
