Insurance companies and their adjusters are not your friends. They see you as a number, not as a human. They care about profits, not fully and fairly compensating you for your injuries. Here are several ways insurance companies will try to minimize the amount you are paid for your injury case:
1. Offering Low Settlement Amounts Early
Insurance companies will try to get you to take a low settlement offer shortly after the car accident. Many prospective clients have called me and told me that before they contacted me, the insurance company had already offered them $500, $1,000, or even $5,000 shortly after their car accident. The reason insurance companies do this is that your claim is likely worth much more than that amount. By offering you a small settlement quickly, they hope you’ll accept it and save them a lot of money.
2. Delaying Your Claim
Insurance companies will delay your claim in hopes that you take a low settlement offer or simply give up on your claim. I recently had a case where my client tried for months to handle her case by herself. Liability was clear as my client was a passenger in a vehicle that rear-ended another vehicle. Despite my client’s efforts, the insurance company had not made her any settlement offers by the time she called me several months after her car accident. After hiring me, we eventually had to file a lawsuit, but shortly after we did, the insurance company paid the six-figure policy limits to settle my client’s case.
3. Requesting a Recorded Statement
Another way an insurance company will try to devalue your injury case is by getting you to do a recorded statement over the phone after your car accident before you hire a lawyer. Do not give a recorded statement. In most situations, it is not a wise idea to give a recorded statement to an insurance company as it can be used against you if your case is litigated.
4. Acting Nice to Gain Your Trust
Insurance adjusters are trained to be really nice to you and act like they care about you. They may call to check up on you and seem nice, but make no mistake about it, they are not your friend. They want you to trust them so that you tell them something that may harm your case and reduce your claim.
5. Discouraging You from Hiring a Lawyer
Insurance companies may discourage you from hiring a lawyer. They may say things like, “You have a simple case,” or “We just want to settle with you.” Insurance companies would rather negotiate with you because they believe they can convince a non-lawyer to take less money. They also know most non-lawyers do not know how to file a lawsuit with a court or how to litigate a case, and thus, if you don’t have a lawyer, the risk of the case being litigated in court is minimal. The truth is that hiring a lawyer usually results in a much higher settlement, so do not be fooled by this trick.
With that said, I hope you found this video to be helpful. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel to learn more about injury cases and watch more of my videos. Also, if you are injured in a motor vehicle accident in Kentucky, remember: don’t wait, call Tate.
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