My Firm Says They Are Waiting for an Offer — What That Means in New York

Attorney Answer

"Waiting for an offer" describes a negotiation with an insurance company, not a filed lawsuit — and in New York a negotiation does not stop the clock that runs from the date of the accident. That is the distinction worth pinning down before anything else: a claim is what a firm presents to an insurer, while an action is a case commenced in court with an index number and a filing date. Only the second one stops a limitations period.

So the question to put to your firm is not whether an offer is coming. It is: has an action been commenced, on what date, and in which court? If the answer is no, the second question is what date they have calendared as the limitations date and what they intend to do before it. Those are ordinary questions a client is entitled to ask in writing and to have answered in writing.

The default period for a personal injury action is three years. CPLR 214(5) covers "an action to recover damages for a personal injury except as provided in sections 214-b, 214-c, 214-i and 215". Sixteen months of quiet negotiation is not itself unusual on a claim involving injections and a decision against surgery — insurers commonly wait for treatment to finish before valuing a case — but it is only tolerable if someone is watching the calendar behind it.

Two possibilities would shorten that calendar sharply, and neither appears in your message. Your account never says what kind of accident this was, and that matters: a personal injury claim arising from the use or operation of a motor vehicle carries an additional layer of New York law under article 51 of the Insurance Law, with its own requirements, and this page does not state them because the record does not fix which kind of case this is. Separately, if a public corporation is a defendant — a city, a county, a school district, a transit authority — General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(a) requires a notice of claim within ninety days after the claim arises and § 50-i(1)(c) requires suit within one year and ninety days, though a court may extend the notice under § 50-e(5). An attorney reading your file will know within a page which of these applies.

If the answers you get are unsatisfactory, a claim against a lawyer has its own deadline. CPLR 214(6) covers "an action to recover damages for malpractice, other than medical, dental or podiatric malpractice, regardless of whether the underlying theory is based in contract or tort", and when such a period begins to run is itself a contested question that is unsettled. Whether you have any such claim is a matter for an independent New York attorney, not for the firm you are asking.

What you can do

1. Ask your firm in writing for a status letter that answers three things: whether an action has been commenced, when and where; and if not, what limitations date is on their calendar.

2. Ask, in the same letter, for a copy of the file, including the demand package and any correspondence with the insurer.

3. Keep your own copies of every medical record, bill and imaging report, in date order.

4. Write down the accident date and how you know it — the whole calendar hangs on it.

5. If the answers do not come, or do not make sense, consult a second New York attorney promptly rather than waiting for the firm to move.

6. Do not sign a release, a settlement statement or a new retainer without having it reviewed.

⏱ Time limits apply. CPLR 214(5) sets a three-year period for a personal injury action, running from the date of the accident itself — not from the date a demand was sent, an offer was requested, or treatment ended. Settlement discussions do not extend it. Shorter periods apply where a public corporation is involved, under General Municipal Law §§ 50-e(1)(a) and 50-i(1)(c), and a claim against an attorney runs on the three-year period in CPLR 214(6). Which of these governs your situation depends on facts this page cannot see; have a New York attorney fix the dates, and do it now rather than after the next call.