How Long Does a Car Accident Case Take

Each provider keeps its own chart and its own billing file, and the demand needs both. One crash can produce records from an ambulance service, an emergency room and several follow-up offices. A patient might start at HCA Healthcare Summerville Hospital, which has a 24-hour emergency room, then see doctors elsewhere in the tri-county area. Some patients reach MUSC, which the state health department lists as an Adult Level I trauma center.

Every stop adds another request and another response to wait for. Wage proof comes from employers, and a self-employed person may need tax returns to show lost income.

A lawyer can pin down the other driver's limits before writing the demand. Under Section 38-77-250, a claimant's attorney may send a sworn request by a delivery method the statute lists, enclosing the incident report. The insurer then owes a sworn reply inside 30 days. That reply identifies the insurer and each insured and states the limits, or the insurer can supply the declarations page. Fleet, umbrella and excess policies sit outside that duty.

A serious injury can outrun the at-fault driver's policy and bring your own underinsured motorist carrier into the claim. Under Section 38-77-160, once the at-fault insurer offers its liability limits, the underinsured carrier gets the option of stepping in to run the defense itself. An uninsured motorist claim adds a different step. That carrier must receive any lawsuit papers and has 30 days to appear. Each added insurer runs its own review before it pays.

A lawyer asks each program for its figure before settlement money goes out, because Medicaid and Medicare both hold repayment rights. Medicaid's claim runs through SCDHHS, the state Medicaid agency, which may step into the injury case or settle its own claim. Medicare conditions its payments for crash care on reimbursement from a liability recovery. Frost Law Group can show a client how these steps affect car accident case value and the net amount received.

Some settlements are not final until a judge signs off. Take a child whose net share tops $25,000. Section 62-5-433 then calls for a verified petition in circuit court, backed by the petitioner's sworn view that the terms serve the minor's best interests.

The money then goes to a conservator, meaning someone a judge names to handle the child's funds. The other route is a protective order, a probate court order that safeguards the money. A parent acting alone can close only a claim of $2,500 or less, with no court and no conservator.

Section 15-51-41 also puts wrongful death settlements before a judge. The same goes for survival claims, which cover the person's own losses before death.

Section 15-7-30 decides venue, the county where a trial happens. For a defendant who lives in South Carolina, two counties usually qualify. One is the county of the driver's home on the day the claim arose. The other is where most of the careless conduct took place.

With several defendants, Section 15-7-30(B) lets the case go forward in any county that works for one of them. A Berkeley County resident who causes a wreck on Dorchester Road near Old Trolley Road could face suit in either county. The Berkeley County Courthouse sits on California Avenue in Moncks Corner, in the Ninth Judicial Circuit.

Discovery is the fact-gathering stage of a lawsuit. Each side answers written questions, hands over documents and sits for depositions, which are sworn question-and-answer sessions outside the courtroom.

Act No. 42 of 2025 brought in a disclosure step. It reaches claims that arose after the first day of 2026. A defendant who blames an outsider gets a 180-day window, opening when the suit begins, to name that outsider. A judge may allow a later disclosure for good cause. The plaintiff can respond by bringing that person into the case.

Mediation is a meeting where a neutral person, the mediator, helps both sides look for a settlement. The mediator does not decide who is right and cannot force an agreement. Offers usually pass back and forth until the parties reach a number or stop. If talks fail, the case simply continues toward trial. Anything agreed there still needs the client's approval.

The client does. Rule 1.2 of South Carolina's Rules of Professional Conduct requires a lawyer to abide by a client's decision on whether to make or accept a settlement offer. A lawyer explains the risks of each path, including how a jury might see the evidence differently than an adjuster. The final yes or no still belongs to the injured person, even late in a case.

A claim for punitive damages can split a trial in two. Under Section 15-32-520, any defendant facing that claim may ask for a bifurcated trial, heard by one jury in two parts. Part one settles fault and compensatory damages, and evidence that bears only on punishment stays out. Part two happens only if part one produced compensatory or nominal damages. At that point the injured person carries a heavier burden, clear and convincing proof that the harm resulted from willful, wanton or reckless conduct.