After you have been involved in a serious accident, you can plan on dealing with a lot of administrative work while you are working with the other driver’s insurance company. You will be working with an insurance adjuster who will take a look at everything in your case in order to get a complete picture of what happened, who is at fault, the type of injuries and damages you have endured, and ultimately decide on the amount of money that they will pay you. Is this amount actually what you deserve, or should you work on negotiations? While the adjuster that you are working with would like you to believe that this is the best you can do, personal injury groups like The King Law Firm disagree completely.
As your bills are mounting and your injuries are healing, it may seem prudent to accept an offer, get a payment, and start moving forward with your life. This is usually not the correct solution to your problems, as you will learn more about below. Get an attorney immediately, and start fighting for the money that you deserve.
Insurance Companies Are Not Working For You
No matter how amicable your interactions may be with the insurance adjuster who is investigating your accident, remember that they are not working for you, and are not looking out for your best interests. Their primary concern is to protect their own financial interests, which is done by ensuring that you, the victim of their clients’ actions, is kept from seeking legal actions against the insurance company and their client in the future while minimizing the payments that they will make.
This is done by making you an offer that they have determined to be the smallest amount that will convince you to waive your legal rights in the future. How? By taking advantage of the fact that you are likely starting to be overwhelmed by mounting medical bills and other associated costs, all while you are missing work due to your injuries. The one-time payment seems like a godsend when in actuality you will ultimately realize that you have missed out on substantial financial support.
Insurance Offers Are Starting Points For Negotiations
Realistically, the offer than in insurance company will make only signals that they have completed their own investigation and that the time to begin negotiations has come. When you counter their offer with the support and expertise of a personal injury attorney, they will immediately know that you are aware of what you truly deserve and that you have the legal firepower to fight for it. This is not to say that they will immediately agree to your counter-offer for a settlement amount, but their legal team will know that you are approaching the table with sound legal guidance and a plan. If negotiations fail, then they know that the next option will be a full personal injury lawsuit, which is bad publicity and costly for the company.
Work With An Attorney First
Even if it turns out that you are one of the rare instances where your settlement offer is what you are actually owed, it is important that you work with an attorney at least for a consultation in order to make certain. This way, you can be confident that you have been given advice by someone with much more experience in the matter than you, and that they have approved this amount. More likely, though, they will encourage you to push back and get what you actually deserve.