In California, you can expect the insurance company’s check within two to six weeks after it receives the signed release. The check goes to your attorney’s trust account, clears, and then the medical liens are paid and your share is disbursed. If every lien was resolved before the settlement, you are paid within days of the check clearing. If a lien is still open, especially a Medi-Cal or Medicare lien, the disbursement waits until that number is final, which can be weeks or months.
The thing that decides how fast you are paid is not the insurance company. It is whether the liens were handled before the release was signed. A carrier that has agreed to pay $50,000 will mail the check on its ordinary cycle. What slows a file down is the client’s health plan asking for one more set of records, or a hospital lien that was never reduced, or Medicare sending a conditional payment letter that includes charges from an unrelated knee. An attorney who starts the lien work months before the settlement, rather than the day the release is signed, gets clients paid faster than any amount of calling the adjuster will.
How long does it take to get a settlement check after settling?
Two to six weeks from the signed release to the insurance company’s check, in most California injury cases. California’s claims regulations require an insurer to pay within 30 days once a claim is accepted and the release is received. The check then clears your attorney’s trust account, liens are paid, and your portion is disbursed, which can be a few days or several weeks depending on whether the liens were resolved ahead of time.
The steps between “we settled” and money in your account
Settlement is agreed, usually by phone or at mediation. Within a day or two the terms are confirmed in writing by email or in a short signed memorandum. If the case was in litigation and the agreement was made at mediation, the signed memorandum is enforceable under Code of Civil Procedure 664.6, which lets the court enforce it if anyone backs out.
The carrier sends a release. This is a document, often five to fifteen pages, in which you give up all claims against the driver in exchange for the payment. It takes the carrier anywhere from two days to three weeks to produce it. Your attorney reviews it, removes language that should not be there (confidentiality clauses, indemnity language that makes you responsible for liens that were already resolved, a Medicare clause that does not apply), and you sign it.
The carrier issues the check. Under California’s Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations, the insurer must tender payment no later than 30 days after accepting the claim and receiving the executed release. Most large carriers mail within two weeks. The check is made out to you and your attorney jointly and is deposited in the attorney’s client trust account.
The check clears. A large check from an out-of-state insurer can take five to ten business days to fully clear. The attorney cannot disburse against uncollected funds.
Liens are paid. Health plan, Medi-Cal, Medicare, hospital, and any providers who treated on a lien. Each is paid the negotiated amount from the trust account.
You receive a settlement statement showing the gross amount, the attorney fee, costs, each lien and your net, and your check or wire goes out. In a case where liens were resolved before settlement, this happens the same week the check clears.
If the case was filed, a dismissal is filed with the court after payment, which does not affect your timing.
What slows the check down
Medicare is the most common cause. If you are a Medicare beneficiary, the carrier will not pay until it has your Medicare information and the attorney will not disburse until Medicare’s final demand letter arrives. Medicare’s process from settlement to final demand runs 60 days or more, and it has to be started before settlement, not after.
Medi-Cal is similar. The Department of Health Care Services has to issue a final lien figure, and its turnaround is measured in months.
Minors and incapacitated adults require court approval of the settlement. A minor’s compromise petition in Los Angeles Superior Court takes six to twelve weeks from filing to the hearing, and the funds are usually placed in a blocked account.
Multiple defendants or multiple insurers each produce their own release and their own check, and the slowest one sets the pace.
Probate issues in a wrongful death case, a dispute between heirs, or a bankruptcy filed by the client during the case will each stop disbursement until resolved.
A release with a problem. A carrier that sends a release with a confidentiality clause and a $10,000 liquidated damages penalty, or one that asks you to indemnify the driver against your own health plan’s lien, is a release that goes back for revision. That costs a week or two but protects you.
What the insurance company does
Most carriers pay on time once the release is in hand. Some take the full 30 days as a matter of routine. If the check has not arrived by day 30, a written demand citing the regulation usually produces it, and a complaint to the California Department of Insurance is the next step. Carriers do not want those on file.
What the carrier will not do is pay before the release is signed, pay you directly when you have an attorney, or pay a portion in advance. If a carrier offers to send a check before a release, the check will have release language on the back, and endorsing it is the release.
What you should do now
Give your attorney a current address, your bank details if you want a wire, and your Medicare or Medi-Cal number at the start of the case, not the end. Sign the release promptly when it is ready and return it the same day. Respond to any request from your health plan’s recovery vendor for records or an accident questionnaire, since an unanswered request is the usual reason a plan will not issue a final lien number.
Do not spend the money before it arrives, and do not take out a settlement advance from a funding company to bridge the gap. Those advances carry interest rates that can eat a large share of a modest settlement for the sake of a few weeks.
Questions people ask next
How long does an insurance company have to pay a settlement in California? Thirty days after accepting the claim and receiving the signed release, under the Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations enforced by the Department of Insurance.
Why is my lawyer holding my settlement money? Usually because a lien has not been finalized, the check has not cleared, or a court approval is pending. The settlement statement should show you exactly what is outstanding.
Can I get an advance on my settlement? Lawsuit funding companies offer them at high cost. In most cases the money arrives within weeks, and the advance is not worth what it charges.
Manoukian Law Firm handles the settlement documents, the lien negotiations and the disbursement personally, with the attorney starting the lien work early so that clients are paid as soon as the check clears. For a free consultation about your injury case, call (818) 818-5031.
