Controlling Your Legacy

« Back to Home

Personal Injury Law: Putting Pressure On Insurance Companies

Posted on

Insurance companies look at the world through the lens of risk. This lens informs how they make all of their decisions. If you've been the victim of an accident, the insurance company might deem you as a low-risk priority, which can lead them to make lowball offers and delay their response times.

Here are some of the ways that a personal injury attorney can flip this narrative to make sure that insurance companies take you seriously.

Lowballed

If you feel like the insurance company is trying to lowball you, your accident attorney can almost always negotiate for a larger settlement.

Threaten to Litigate: the old saying goes that time is money. For insurance companies, every minute they spend resolving your claim is money spent. Thus, if your accident attorney threatens the insurance company with a time-consuming lawsuit, they will often offer a much larger settlement. When negotiating to settle before a lawsuit is filed, it's important to substantiate the severity and cost of the injury you sustained. For instance, if the injuries you sustained in the accident have led to permanent disabilities, prolonged medical treatment, and/or a reduction in your earning potential, your attorney needs to make sure the claim covers these costs.

Comps: another easy way for an accident attorney to negotiate for a bigger settlement is to research comparable cases. If your accident attorney can demonstrate that similar cases involving similar circumstance and injuries were settled for much higher than you're being offered, then the insurance company will feel pressure to avoid an eventual jury verdict.

Delayed

Another tactic employed by insurance companies is to delay their offers and responses with the hope that you'll settle for less to get paid faster.

Speed up the timeline: some of the biggest benefits of hiring an accident attorney are that they can negotiate for an expedited timeline and they have a team of paralegals who don't mind badgering the insurance company every day. Additionally, most accident attorneys won't charge you a dime until your case is settled. Thus, you can conserve your money until the insurance company settles with you.

Re-File: if the insurance company misses a date, you often have the right to re-file your claim. In most cases, you can re-file for a much larger amount. This can be particularly true if the insurance company drags its feet on paying out a claim or filing paperwork with the courts.

To learn more, contact a personal injury lawyer.


Share