Getting injured is stressful enough without dealing with an insurance company that seems to be dragging its feet. You filed your claim weeks or months ago, and now you're stuck in limbo. The adjuster keeps asking for more documents, or maybe they've stopped returning your calls altogether. Your medical bills are piling up, you might be out of work, and the insurance company keeps saying they're "still reviewing" your case.
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This delay isn't always accidental. Insurance companies sometimes use stalling as a strategy, hoping you'll either give up or accept whatever low settlement they eventually offer just to make the financial pressure stop. Understanding why this happens and what you can do about it can make a real difference in getting the compensation you deserve.
Why Do Insurance Companies Delay Personal Injury Claims?
Insurance companies are businesses, and paying out claims cuts into their profits. While many claims are handled fairly, some insurers use delay tactics deliberately. The longer they can stretch out the process, the more desperate you might become for any money at all. They're betting that your mounting bills and financial stress will push you to settle for less than your claim is actually worth.
In New York, these delays often happen during specific phases of your claim. Right after you file, the insurance company enters what they call an investigation phase. They'll request your medical records, accident reports, photos, witness statements, and documentation of lost wages. This part legitimately takes time, but some insurers stretch it out by claiming documents are missing, rotating you between different adjusters who each need to "get up to speed," or suddenly deciding they need to reinvestigate something they have already reviewed.
Settlement negotiations are another common stalling point. You might go back and forth for months with an adjuster who keeps making lowball offers, asking for more medical records, or questioning whether your injuries are really as serious as you claim. Each round of this takes weeks, and meanwhile, your financial situation becomes more precarious.
What Stalling Actually Looks Like
One common approach is the endless document loop. You submit everything they ask for, then weeks later they claim something is missing or unreadable. You send it again, and the cycle repeats. Sometimes they'll assign your claim to a new adjuster who says they need to start the review process over from scratch.
Another tactic involves questioning the severity of your injuries, especially in car accident cases. New York operates under a no-fault insurance system for auto accidents, which means your own insurance pays your medical bills and lost wages up to $50,000 through Personal Injury Protection coverage, regardless of who caused the crash. But if your injuries are serious enough, you can step outside this system and sue the at-fault driver for additional damages. The insurance company knows this, so they have an incentive to argue that your injuries don't meet New York's "serious injury" threshold.
Under New York Insurance Law Section 5102(d), a serious injury includes:
- Death;
- Dismemberment;
- Significant disfigurement;
- A fracture;
- Loss of a fetus;
- Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system;
- Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member;
- Significant limitation of use of a body function or system; or
- An injury or impairment that prevents a person from performing usual daily activities for at least 90 days (within the first 180 days following the accident).
Insurance companies will stall while they look for any reason to claim your injuries fall short of these definitions.
In cases that end up in litigation, defendants and their insurers have historically used procedural tactics to delay matters further.
One common approach was waiting until late in the case to bring in third parties, such as when a general contractor in a construction accident case suddenly names subcontractors as additional defendants months or even years into the lawsuit. This forces everyone to restart parts of the discovery process and pushes the trial date back.
New York recently addressed this specific problem with legislation called the AVOID Act, signed in December 2025 and taking effect in April 2026. This law amends the state's Civil Practice Law and Rules to impose strict deadlines on when defendants can bring third parties into a lawsuit. Now, if a defendant wants to implead someone else based on a contract, they have 60 days from filing their answer to do it. For non-contractual claims, they have 60 days from when they discover the basis for adding that party. Extensions are limited to 30 days in most situations, and after a year, bringing in new parties requires both court approval and consent from you, the plaintiff.
There are narrow exceptions for grave injuries under Workers' Compensation Law, where an employer can be impleaded up to 120 days after discovery, but overall the law significantly reduces opportunities for delay.
Important Deadlines You Need to Know
Insurance company stalling becomes even more dangerous when you're up against legal deadlines. Missing these cutoffs can destroy your claim entirely, which is exactly what some insurers are hoping for when they drag things out.
For most personal injury cases in New York, you have three years from the date of your accident to file a lawsuit. Medical malpractice cases have a shorter window of two and a half years. These might sound like plenty of time, but months can disappear quickly when you're dealing with a stalling insurer, especially if you're trying to settle without going to court.
If your injury involves a New York City government entity, like a slip and fall on a poorly maintained sidewalk or an accident involving an MTA bus, you face much tighter deadlines. You must file a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the incident. After filing this notice, you have to wait 30 days before you can actually sue, and then you must file your lawsuit within one year and 90 days of the accident. These compressed timelines leave almost no room for insurance company delays.
Car accident cases in New York require you to file a no-fault claim with your own insurance company within 30 days, regardless of who caused the crash. This ensures your medical bills and lost wages are covered up to the policy limits. Missing this deadline can result in denial of benefits to which you're entitled.
The new AVOID Act creates additional deadlines that affect how quickly your case can move forward if you do file a lawsuit. Defendants now have 60 days from filing their answer to bring in third parties based on contracts, and similar tight windows for other types of third-party claims. While these deadlines protect you from defense delay tactics, they also emphasize how important timing is throughout the legal process.
Steps You Should Take When Your Claim is Being Delayed
When you realize the insurance company is stalling, your response matters. Taking the right steps can get things moving again and protect your legal rights.
Start by documenting absolutely everything. Keep copies of every piece of paper related to your claim. Save all emails and letters from the insurance company. Write down the date, time, and summary of every phone conversation you have with an adjuster, including their name and what they said. Take photos of your injuries as they heal and keep all medical records, bills, and receipts. Document your lost wages with pay stubs and letters from your employer. If your property was damaged, keep repair estimates and receipts. This documentation serves two purposes: it gives you evidence if you need to prove bad faith later, and it shows the insurance company that you're organized and serious.
Stop communicating directly with insurance adjusters. This might seem counterintuitive since you want to move your claim forward, but direct contact usually works against you. Adjusters are trained to ask questions that might get you to say something that undermines your claim. They might record your conversations without making it obvious. They might seem friendly and sympathetic while actually gathering ammunition to deny or devalue your claim. Getting an attorney to handle insurance negotiations lets them know that you're serious. Once you have an attorney, all communication should go through them.
Push back on unreasonable delays by enforcing the timelines that exist. If you're dealing with a no-fault auto claim, your insurance company has specific deadlines for paying benefits. If they're not meeting those obligations, your attorney can demand compliance and escalate the matter if necessary. In any personal injury claim, there's no reason for an investigation to drag on for many months without explanation.
Consider filing a complaint with the New York Department of Financial Services if the delays seem particularly egregious. The DFS regulates insurance companies in New York and investigates unfair claims practices. While filing a complaint won't directly get you paid, it creates a record of the insurer's behavior and can sometimes prompt them to take your claim more seriously.
Hiring an attorney who handles personal injury cases and understands insurance bad faith is often the most effective step you can take. When an insurance company sees that you have legal representation, they know you're not going away and you're prepared to file a lawsuit if necessary. An attorney can send a demand letter that lays out your case, the evidence supporting it, and a deadline for response. This formal communication often breaks through the stalling because the insurer knows the next step is litigation, which typically costs them more money than settling fairly.
Your attorney can also counter lowball settlement offers with detailed proof of your damages. This means presenting your medical records, expert opinions about your prognosis and future treatment needs, documentation of lost income and diminished earning capacity, and evidence of how the injury has affected your daily life. When the insurance company sees that you have a well-documented case and you're ready to go to trial if needed, settlement negotiations often become more productive.
Can You Sue an Insurance Company for Stalling?
You can sue an insurance company if their delays cross the line into bad faith. Insurance companies have a legal obligation to handle claims fairly and within a reasonable timeframe. When they violate this duty through tactics designed to frustrate or pressure you into a bad settlement, that can constitute bad faith.
Bad faith indicators include:
- Leaving your claim in "under review" status for an unreasonably long time with no explanation
- Repeatedly changing adjusters so you have to restart conversations from scratch
- Denying your claim based on reasons that don't match the policy language or the facts of your case
- Refusing to communicate with you or your attorney
A bad faith lawsuit is separate from your underlying injury claim. You're not just seeking compensation for your injuries anymore. You're also seeking damages for the insurance company's misconduct in handling your claim. This can include compensation for the financial harm their delays caused, emotional distress resulting from their tactics, and potentially punitive damages meant to punish the insurer and deter similar behavior.
These cases require strong evidence of the insurer's bad faith conduct, which is why documenting everything from the beginning is so important. An attorney experienced in insurance bad faith cases can evaluate whether the delays you're experiencing rise to this level and whether pursuing a bad faith claim makes sense in your situation.
How New York Law Protects You From Delay Tactics
New York has several laws and rules designed to prevent insurance companies and defendants from stalling indefinitely. Understanding these protections helps you recognize when your rights are being violated.
The no-fault auto insurance system, while it limits your ability to sue for minor injuries, actually protects you in some ways from delay tactics. Your own insurance company must pay your medical bills and lost wages up to $50,000 regardless of who caused the accident, and they have to do this promptly. You don't have to wait for a liability determination or settlement negotiation to get these benefits. If your insurer stalls on paying no-fault benefits they owe, that's a clear violation you can challenge.
The serious injury threshold, defined in Insurance Law Section 5102(d), also creates a clear standard. Either your injuries meet the definition or they don't. While insurance companies will certainly argue about whether you've met this threshold, the law provides specific categories that courts have interpreted over many years. Your attorney can present medical evidence showing your injuries fall within these categories, making it harder for the insurer to justify endless delays while they "evaluate" whether your injury is serious enough.
The AVOID Act represents New York's most recent effort to combat litigation delays. By forcing defendants to identify and bring in third parties early in a lawsuit, the law prevents the scenario where you're two years into a case and suddenly have to restart discovery because the defendant just added new parties. This is particularly important in construction accident cases, workplace injuries, and other situations involving multiple potentially liable parties. The law's tight deadlines and limited exceptions mean cases should move toward resolution faster, which reduces the insurance company's ability to use time as a weapon against you.
New York courts also have rules about how long various stages of litigation should take. While some delay is inevitable in the legal system, judges can impose sanctions on parties who engage in unreasonable delay tactics. Your attorney can file motions to compel responses if the other side isn't providing discovery, or seek other court intervention when delays are unjustified.
What Happens if You Have to File a Lawsuit
Sometimes the only way to overcome insurance company stalling is to file a lawsuit. This doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up in a trial. In fact, most personal injury cases settle before trial, but filing the lawsuit changes the dynamics of your case.
Once you file a lawsuit, the case proceeds according to court deadlines rather than the insurance company's preferred timeline. There's a judge overseeing the case who can intervene if one side is engaging in delay tactics. The formal discovery process begins, which means both sides have to exchange information and documents according to specific rules and deadlines. You and other witnesses may have your depositions taken, where you answer questions under oath. The defendant and their representatives will be deposed as well.
This process creates pressure on the insurance company because they have to invest more resources in defending the case. They're paying attorneys hourly rates to handle discovery, draft motions, prepare for depositions, and eventually get ready for trial. These costs add up quickly, which makes settling for a fair amount more attractive than it was when they were just dealing with your claim informally.
As the case gets closer to trial, settlement negotiations often become more serious. The insurance company has to realistically evaluate what a jury might award you if you win at trial. If your case is strong, the risk of a large jury verdict often motivates a reasonable settlement offer.
If your case does go to trial, a jury will hear the evidence and decide whether the defendant is liable for your injuries and, if so, how much compensation you should receive. Your attorney will present your medical records, expert testimony about your injuries and prognosis, evidence of your lost income and other financial losses, and testimony about how the injury has affected your life. The defendant will present their side, and the jury decides.
Going to trial is more time-consuming and uncertain than settling, but sometimes it's necessary to get fair compensation. Insurance companies know that some attorneys rarely take cases to trial, so they don't offer reasonable settlements to those lawyers' clients. Having an attorney with trial experience signals that you're willing to see the case through to a verdict if that's what it takes.
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Summing It Up
Insurance company stalling is frustrating and financially stressful, but you're not powerless. Recognizing delay tactics for what they are is the first step. When your claim sits in endless review, when adjusters keep changing, when you're stuck in a loop of providing the same documents repeatedly, or when settlement negotiations drag on for months with no progress, the insurance company may be stalling deliberately.
Protect yourself by documenting everything related to your claim, avoiding direct contact with adjusters, and being aware of the legal deadlines that apply to your case. New York's three-year statute of limitations for most personal injury cases, the much shorter deadlines for claims against government entities, and the 30-day window for no-fault auto claims all require attention. Missing these deadlines can destroy your claim entirely.
Taking action makes a difference. Hiring an attorney experienced in personal injury cases and insurance bad faith puts pressure on the insurance company to take your claim seriously. Your lawyer can enforce existing deadlines, demand compliance with the insurer's obligations, counter lowball offers with strong evidence, and file a lawsuit if necessary. New York's legal protections, including the no-fault system's prompt payment requirements and the new AVOID Act's restrictions on litigation delays, give you tools to fight back against stalling.
The insurance company is hoping that time and financial pressure will work in their favor. By understanding your rights, meeting your deadlines, and getting experienced legal help, you can turn the tables and move toward the fair compensation you deserve for your injuries.
The Porter Law Group has spent over two decades battling insurance companies to secure compensation for numerous clients throughout New York State. View our results and see how we've managed to help victims of some of the most serious injury cases get what they were rightfully owed. You can fill out our online form for a free consultation and know your options. You can also call 833-PORTER9 or email info@porterlawteam.com to get started.
