By Steven M. Sweat, Personal Injury Lawyers, APC

30+ years representing California injury victims | Super Lawyers since 2012 | Avvo 10.0

You signed the retainer. The fee agreement is complete, you have a copy, and your attorney has officially taken your case. Now what? For most injured Californians, this is the moment the process becomes opaque. The phone calls slow down. You are not in court. You are not in mediation. So what is your lawyer actually doing?

This guide answers that question — week by week and month by month — from the client’s perspective. It is the chronology a real California personal injury case actually follows after retention, what your attorney is doing behind the scenes, what you should be doing (and not doing), and what to realistically expect at each milestone.

If you are still earlier in the process — deciding whether to hire a lawyer at all, or evaluating attorney candidates — start here instead: Hiring a Lawyer vs. Handling Your Own Personal Injury Claim. For the legal-procedural timeline (demand phase, motions, mandatory settlement conference, trial), see our Timeline of a Personal Injury Case in California. This article focuses specifically on the client experience from the moment you sign the retainer through the day the settlement check clears.

Phase 1: The First 48 Hours After You Hire Your Lawyer

This is the single most active phase of the case for your law firm. Most clients do not realize how much happens in the 24–48 hours after a retainer is signed.

Letters of Representation Go Out Same Day

The first thing a competent California personal injury firm does is send letters of representation — formal notices to every insurance carrier and party involved that you are now represented by counsel and that all communications must go through the firm. This typically goes out the same day the retainer is signed, by both email and U.S. mail.

The legal effect is immediate and important. Under California Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 4.2 — and the parallel rule for insurance adjusters — once an opposing party knows you are represented, they cannot communicate with you directly about the claim. Every adjuster phone call, every recorded-statement request, every settlement offer must now go through your lawyer. If you are still receiving calls from the at-fault driver’s insurance company more than 48 hours after retention, that is a problem you should flag with your firm immediately.

Your First Intake Conference

Within the first day or two, you will have a longer intake conference — usually with the attorney handling your case and a paralegal. This is more thorough than the consultation that led to retention. Plan to spend 60–90 minutes on the following:

• A complete narrative of the accident — what you saw, what you heard, what you said, what the other driver said, where the impact occurred, vehicle positions, weather, traffic signals.
• Every medical complaint — even injuries you think are minor. Soft-tissue injuries that seem trivial in week one frequently develop into significant issues by month three. Document them now.
• Every potentially relevant insurance policy — your auto liability, your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, your med-pay, any health insurance, any disability coverage, any homeowner’s umbrella. Bring declaration pages.
• Pre-existing conditions — anything that involved the same body part injured in the accident. Hide nothing. Defense attorneys will find it, and the only thing worse than a pre-existing condition is a pre-existing condition you didn’t disclose to your own lawyer.
• Witness names and contact information — your firm will reach out to them while their memories are fresh.
• Photos and video — upload everything from your phone. Scene photos, vehicle damage, your injuries, anything posted to social media.

Phase 2: Weeks 1–4 — Investigation and Evidence Preservation

With representation established, your firm now spends the first month locking down evidence before it disappears. Most clients are surprised at how much investigation work happens — work they never see.

What Your Firm Is Doing

• Ordering the police report. In California, the official traffic collision report (CHP 555 or local equivalent) is typically available 5–14 days after the accident. Your firm orders it the same week you sign.
• Sending preservation-of-evidence letters. If a commercial vehicle, rideshare, or business is involved, your attorney sends formal letters demanding that surveillance video, dashcam footage, electronic control module (“black box”) data, driver logs, and maintenance records be preserved. Most surveillance video is overwritten within 7–30 days, so this is time-critical.
• Identifying every defendant. This is one of the most underappreciated parts of personal injury work. The driver who hit you may have been on the clock for an employer (creating respondeat superior liability), driving for a rideshare company, operating a defective vehicle, or driving on a roadway with a known dangerous condition maintained by a public entity. Each additional defendant adds an insurance policy and increases your potential recovery.
• Identifying every insurance policy. Beyond the at-fault driver’s primary liability coverage, your attorney looks for excess/umbrella policies, employer coverage if the defendant was working, your own underinsured motorist coverage, and any med-pay benefits.
• Witness interviews. Your firm’s investigator contacts witnesses while memories are fresh and gets recorded statements (with their permission) that lock in their account before defense counsel can get to them.
• Scene photography and reconstruction. If the case involves disputed liability, an investigator will document the scene with measurements, photographs, and sometimes drone footage. In serious-injury cases, an accident reconstruction expert may be retained early.

What You Should Be Doing

In the first month after retention, your only job is to focus on three things:

1. Get medical treatment, consistently. Follow every doctor’s recommendation. Attend every appointment. Do the physical therapy. Take the medications as prescribed. Gaps in treatment are the single most damaging thing to a personal injury case — adjusters argue (correctly) that if you stopped treating, you must have gotten better.
2. Document everything. Keep a simple journal. One short entry per day: pain level (0–10), what activities you couldn’t do, sleep quality, mood, missed work. This becomes powerful evidence of pain and suffering damages later.
3. Forward everything to your firm. Every letter from any insurance company, every bill, every notice from any party — forward it. Do not respond to anything. Do not negotiate anything. Do not give anyone a recorded statement, including your own insurance company without first checking with your attorney.

Phase 3: Months 1–6 — Medical Treatment and Records Collection

This is the longest phase of most cases, and the one where clients get the most anxious. From your perspective, very little visible progress is happening: you are going to medical appointments, you are still in pain, and you are not seeing settlement money. From your firm’s perspective, this phase is doing the most important work in the case — building the medical record that will determine your settlement value.

Why Settling Now Is a Bad Idea

Insurance companies often make their first offer during this phase, and the offer is almost always far below fair value. Adjusters know that injuries — particularly back, neck, and brain injuries — frequently take six to twelve months to fully reveal themselves. They want to settle before you and your doctors know what you actually have. The single most expensive mistake an injury victim can make is settling before reaching maximum medical improvement (MMI). For more on this dynamic, see our analysis: Will I Get Less Money If I Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer in California?.

What Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) Actually Means

MMI is the point at which your treating physicians determine that further medical treatment is unlikely to meaningfully improve your condition. You may still have ongoing symptoms — pain, restricted range of motion, permanent impairment — but the trajectory of recovery has plateaued. MMI is what allows your attorney to value the case, because only at MMI can a treating doctor write a final report describing your residual condition, your permanent impairment, and your future medical needs.

MMI typically occurs anywhere from three months out (for soft-tissue injuries that fully resolve) to two-plus years out (for surgical cases, traumatic brain injuries, or spinal cord injuries). Your attorney’s pace is calibrated to your medical timeline, not the other way around.

Records Collection

Once you reach MMI — or once the medical picture is clear enough — your firm orders complete records and bills from every treating provider. This sounds simple but is the single most time-consuming administrative task in personal injury work. California hospitals and medical groups routinely take 30–90 days to fulfill records requests. Records arrive piecemeal, often incomplete, and frequently in the wrong format. Your paralegals are calling, faxing, and re-requesting throughout this entire phase.

For a deeper look at how this medical timeline drives settlement value, see How Long Do Settlement Negotiations Take? Timeline & Delays and Understanding Car Accident Settlement Values in California.

Phase 4: Demand and Negotiation

Once your medical record is complete and your damages are quantifiable, your attorney prepares the demand package. This is the document that drives the entire settlement negotiation.

What Goes Into a Demand Package

• A liability narrative. A factual and legal explanation of why the defendant is responsible — citing the police report, witness statements, traffic laws, and any photographic or video evidence.
• Medical records and bills. Complete records from every provider, organized chronologically, with billing summaries.
• A future medical care projection. If you have permanent injuries, this section forecasts the cost of ongoing treatment, often supported by a life-care planner or treating physician’s narrative report.
• Lost wage documentation. Pay stubs, W-2s, employer verification letters, and (for self-employed clients) tax returns and profit/loss statements.
• A pain and suffering narrative. Often the most persuasive section — describing in detail how the injury has affected your life. This is where your daily journal pays off.
• Photographs. Of the scene, the vehicles, your injuries, your scars.
• A specific demand. A dollar figure backed by everything above.

How the Insurer Responds

Under California Insurance Code §790.03 and the implementing fair-claims-practices regulations, insurers are required to acknowledge a claim within 15 days, accept or deny within 40 days of receiving sufficient information, and pay accepted claims within 30 days. In practice, response timelines stretch — particularly on larger claims. Expect the first substantive response within 30–60 days of the demand.

The first counter-offer is almost never the final number. Settlement negotiation in personal injury cases is a structured back-and-forth, often lasting 30–90 days, sometimes longer. Your attorney handles every communication. You are not on these calls. You are kept informed of every offer and counter-offer in writing.

When Cases Settle in This Phase

Most California personal injury cases — particularly those with clear liability and full insurance coverage — settle during this pre-litigation negotiation phase. Once both sides arrive at a number you authorize, the insurer issues a settlement check and a release agreement, and the case moves to closeout (Phase 6 below).

If the insurer refuses to negotiate in good faith — common with certain carriers — your case moves to litigation. For an in-depth look at how specific insurance companies behave during this phase, see our analyses of GEICO, State Farm, Allstate, and Progressive.

Phase 5: Litigation (When the Case Doesn’t Settle)

Approximately 30–40% of personal injury claims do not settle during pre-litigation negotiation and require a lawsuit to be filed. The deadline to file is set by California Code of Civil Procedure §335.1 — generally two years from the date of injury — and your attorney files well before that deadline if a settlement cannot be reached.

Filing a lawsuit does not mean your case is going to trial. Approximately 95–97% of filed cases still settle before a jury verdict — they just settle on a different timeline and through different mechanisms. For a comprehensive comparison of settling versus trying a case, see Settling vs. Going to Trial — Which Gets You More Money?.

What Litigation Looks Like for You

Once a complaint is filed and served, the case enters the litigation phase. Here is what you can expect as the client:

• Written discovery. Both sides exchange written questions (interrogatories), document requests, and requests for admissions. Your attorney drafts your responses. You will need to spend a few hours reviewing and verifying answers under penalty of perjury, but this is mostly attorney work.
• Your deposition. This is the most significant client-facing event in litigation. Defense counsel will question you under oath, with a court reporter present, typically for 3–6 hours. Your attorney will spend at least one full prep session with you beforehand. You answer truthfully, concisely, and only the question asked. You do not volunteer information. Most depositions are uneventful for clients who are well-prepared and honest.
• Defense medical examination. The defense is entitled to have you examined by a doctor of their choosing — typically an orthopedic surgeon or neurologist who works heavily for insurance companies. You attend, you cooperate, and your attorney prepares you for the dynamic in advance.
• Mediation. Most California personal injury cases that get filed settle at mediation — a confidential, voluntary settlement conference with a neutral third party (often a retired judge). Mediations typically last a full day and frequently result in settlement.
• Mandatory Settlement Conference. If mediation does not resolve the case, every California civil case must go through a court-ordered settlement conference under California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1380, before trial. Many cases that survive mediation settle at the MSC.
• Trial. If everything else fails, your case is tried before a jury. Trial in Los Angeles Superior Court is typically reached 2–3 years after filing due to court backlogs.

For a comprehensive procedural deep-dive into the litigation process — including discovery rules, motion practice, CCP §998 offers, and trial procedure — see Timeline of a Personal Injury Case in California.

Phase 6: Settlement, Liens, and Disbursement

Once a settlement is agreed to — whether in pre-litigation negotiation, at mediation, at the MSC, or after a verdict — your case enters closeout. This is the phase that converts a settlement number into money in your bank account, and it is more complicated than most clients expect.

Step 1: The Release Agreement

The defense drafts a written settlement agreement and release. Your attorney reviews it for problematic terms — overbroad release language, indemnity provisions, confidentiality clauses, tax-reporting language — and negotiates revisions. Once it is acceptable, you sign it. Once the insurer receives the signed release, they have 30–45 days under California law to issue the check, though most pay within 14–30 days.

Step 2: The Check Arrives at Your Lawyer’s Trust Account

The settlement check is made payable to you and your attorney jointly. Under California State Bar rules, it is deposited into the firm’s IOLTA client trust account. It does not go directly to you. This is normal, required by the Rules of Professional Conduct, and protects everyone involved.

Step 3: Lien Resolution

This is the part of the case that quietly determines how much you actually take home, and it is where an experienced firm pays for itself many times over.

If health insurance, Medi-Cal, Medicare, or a hospital paid for any of your accident-related medical care, they have a statutory or contractual right to be reimbursed from your settlement. These are called liens or subrogation claims. A typical California personal injury settlement involves one or more of the following:

• Health plan liens (ERISA plans, HMOs, PPOs) — often negotiable.
• Medi-Cal liens — governed by Welfare and Institutions Code §14124.70 et seq., subject to mandatory reduction formulas.
• Medicare liens — federal lien, must be resolved through CMS.
• Hospital liens under California Civil Code §3045.1 — capped at 50% of the settlement after attorney’s fees.
• Med-pay reimbursement — usually owed back to your own auto carrier if they paid medical bills.
• Treating provider liens — common in personal injury cases where doctors treated you on a lien basis pending settlement.

Your attorney negotiates each of these liens down. A skilled negotiator can routinely cut hospital and provider liens by 30–60% — money that goes directly to you, not to the lien holder. This work happens before disbursement and is one of the highest-value tasks your firm performs.

Step 4: The Settlement Statement and Disbursement

Before any money is paid out, your attorney prepares a written settlement statement showing:

• Gross settlement amount
• Attorney’s fee (the agreed contingency percentage)
• Case costs (filing fees, deposition costs, expert fees, records fees, mediator fees, etc.)
• Each lien holder, the original demand, and the negotiated payoff
• Net to client

You review and sign the settlement statement. Your attorney then disburses the funds — paying the lien holders, paying case costs, paying the firm’s fee, and writing you a check (or initiating an electronic transfer) for your net recovery. From signed release to money in your account, expect 30–60 days, depending on lien complexity.

Putting It All Together: A Realistic Timeline

Below is what a typical California personal injury case looks like end-to-end. Your case will vary based on injury severity, liability disputes, and insurance coverage.

What Can Delay Your Case (and What Cannot)

Clients often ask why their case is taking longer than they expected. The honest answer is that some delays are unavoidable and some are tactical. Knowing the difference helps.

Legitimate Delays

• Your medical condition has not stabilized. Cases cannot be valued before MMI. Pushing to settle prematurely loses money.
• Multiple defendants. Coordinating settlement among multiple insurers takes longer than negotiating with one.
• Disputed liability. If fault is contested, additional investigation, expert work, and sometimes accident reconstruction are required.
• Records collection. Hospitals genuinely take 30–90+ days to produce complete records.
• Court backlogs. Los Angeles Superior Court trial dates are routinely set 2–3 years out. This is structural, not anyone’s fault.

Tactical Delays by Insurers

Some delays are intentional. Common adjuster tactics include reassigning your file to a new handler mid-case (which restarts internal review), requesting documents they have already received, claiming “supervisor approval” that never materializes, and slow-walking responses to demand packages. An experienced firm anticipates these tactics and pushes back, including by filing suit when delay tactics indicate the insurer has no intention of negotiating fairly.

For a deeper look at how settlement timelines actually work in California, see How Long Do Car Accident Settlements Take in California?.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often will I hear from my lawyer after I sign?

Expect substantive contact at every meaningful milestone — when investigation findings come in, when the demand is sent, when an offer is received, when liens are negotiated. Between milestones, weeks may go by without contact, particularly during the medical-treatment phase. That is normal and a sign of a healthy case, not a problem. If you have questions or concerns at any time, you should be able to reach a paralegal or attorney within one business day.

Can I still see my own doctors?

Yes, and you should. Your treating relationships are your own. Your attorney does not direct your medical care. Some firms refer clients to specific providers when needed, but the choice is always yours.

What if my case is taking too long?

If your treatment is complete and your file feels stalled, ask for a status conference with your attorney. A reputable firm will tell you exactly what is happening and what the next milestone is. If the answer feels evasive, you have the right to request your file and consult another attorney for a second opinion. You can change attorneys at any time, though doing so during litigation can complicate fee arrangements.

Will I have to go to court?

Probably not. Approximately 95–97% of California personal injury cases settle without trial. The most likely formal proceedings you will personally attend are your deposition (if a lawsuit is filed) and a defense medical examination. You generally do not appear at hearings, mediations are optional for you to attend, and trials are rare.

How much will I actually take home?

Net recovery depends on three things: the gross settlement, the contingency fee, and the size of your medical liens. In California, the standard contingency fee is 33⅓% pre-litigation and 40% if a lawsuit is filed. Case costs are deducted in addition to the fee. Liens vary widely. Your attorney provides you with a written settlement statement showing every deduction before disbursement, and you have the right to question any line item.

What is the difference between this guide and the Personal Injury Case Timeline article?

This guide focuses on the client experience — what you will see, what you should be doing, and what your firm is doing on your behalf at each stage. The Timeline of a Personal Injury Case in California article is a more legal-procedural deep-dive into the demand phase, motion practice, mediation, mandatory settlement conferences, CCP §998 offers, and trial procedure. They are companion pieces.

Disclaimer: This article provides general legal information and is not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every personal injury case is unique. Consult a licensed California attorney about the specific facts of your situation.