Why Does Greene & Phillips Give Insurance Companies Only 14 Days to Respond to a Demand?

Greene & Phillips gives every insurance company 14 days to respond once a demand letter goes out. In a recent interview with Studio 10, Attorney J. David Greene says the deadline exists because adjusters juggle heavy caseloads, take vacations, and sit in seminars, and a demand with no deadline attached can sit on a desk indefinitely.

How long does a typical Alabama injury case take to resolve?

Most soft tissue cases, the kind that follow a routine rear-end collision, run 90 to 120 days. That clock doesn’t start at the wreck. It starts once treatment wraps up. David breaks the sequence down: the doctor releases the patient, the medical records come in, the firm builds a demand package around them, and the package goes out to the insurance company. Each step has to finish before the next one can start, and none of them move in parallel.

Wrongful death cases, and cases involving broken bones or a commercial carrier, usually take longer. An 18-wheeler claim brings a second, often better-funded insurance company into the picture, along with a more involved investigation. Those cases don’t fit the 90 to 120 day window, and nobody should expect them to.

Why does the medical side of a case take longer than the legal side?

Investigating a wreck, pinning down the applicable law, and assembling a case file is usually the fast part. David says his team can do that piece “fairly quickly.” Medical treatment is what actually sets the pace. A physical therapist might see a patient for eight or ten visits before releasing them, or the treatment might reveal something that sends the case back to the doctor for an MRI and a longer course of care. The firm can’t put together an accurate demand until treatment is finished and the records reflect the full picture, so a slower recovery means a slower case, regardless of how quickly the legal work gets done.

What is a time-limited demand, and why does the firm use one?

A time-limited demand is a demand package sent with a fixed deadline attached, in this firm’s case, 14 days, for the insurance company to respond. Most adjusters won’t answer within that window without at least one round of follow-up: they’ll ask for more documentation, or send questions back to the firm before they’ll evaluate the claim. That back-and-forth is normal. The 14-day marker exists so it doesn’t turn into an open-ended wait with no pressure on the other side to move.

Does hiring a lawyer actually change what you recover?

Industry-cited research suggests represented claimants recover significantly more than people who negotiate directly with an insurance company. David points to a specific figure, roughly 3.5 times, though he can’t name the study behind it. That number comes from the insurance side of the industry, not from Greene & Phillips, and hasn’t been independently verified here, so it should be read as an industry-cited claim rather than a guaranteed outcome. Every case is different, and results depend on its own facts.

His point isn’t really about picking a specific firm. It’s that going it alone against an adjuster, who negotiates claims for a living, tends to leave money on the table. “You don’t have to get the lawyers at Greene & Phillips,” David says. “But get a lawyer.”

How do you reach Greene & Phillips about a case?

Call 251-478-1115 in Mobile, 205-918-7800 in Birmingham, or the toll-free line at 1-877-478-1115. You can also start online by visiting our contact page.