It may be tempting to accept the first offer of compensation from an insurance company. Suppose you are offered the money in reimbursement for your losses, damages, personal injuries, and pain and suffering, lost wages, as well as probable future expenses. In that case, you may consider accepting this offer.
More than likely, though, you are not offered “the moon” on the first offer of compensation from an insurance company. Insurance companies are highly regulated by agencies that force them to deal fairly with everyone. Therefore, you will be dealt with fairly, but the insurance company will always hold something back.
An insurance company’s first offer of compensation is often a “feeler” or a tentative first offer. Remember, as with any offer, you get to vote on it too. The insurance company is not talking to itself when it makes the first offer. They are talking directly to you. As you submit your information for the claim, your claim will be investigated thoroughly by the insurance company.
You should be working with an attorney at this stage to get the best advice possible to settle your claim for a number that is agreeable to you. You must never forget all of your injury expenses, personal expenses, and relevant future expenses that will come into play for this injury that you suffered. Many people think of one aspect of their claim and leave something important. Such is the case for the individual who remembers the expenses for the personal injury and the medical bills but forgets the expenses for the vehicle involved in the car crash.
By the time that you get a second offer from an insurance company, you are well into the start of the negotiation process to settle out your claim. Settling your claim is the goal of the negotiations for both parties. Remember, insurance companies want to settle your claim. They want to settle it for a number that is acceptable to them but may not be acceptable to you.
Settlement offers in the second round of negotiations are more serious than the first offer. There is no way to tell how any particular settlement offer will go or be completed. There are too many variables to consider. For example, a settlement offer is personal to the individual making it. Even if there were the case of identical twins who were in the same car accident and sustained the same injury – it is right for them to settle for different amounts!
Any settlement offer can be considered “in progress” if there is room for negotiation. If you are working with an attorney, there is usually room for more negotiation with the insurance company. This is why you work with an attorney at the beginning of your claim. In that case, the attorney is in the best position to negotiate for you to get the highest recovery reward.
An attorney makes up a strategy to negotiate for you, which takes time to sort out. When an attorney negotiates the best settlement for you, it is not a last-minute shot. Neither is it an afterthought to getting your medical bills paid. Attorneys put a lot of effort into developing a winning strategy to get you the money you need to recover from your injuries and losses fully.
You will want to talk to an attorney who can negotiate well with an insurance company. The last attorney you want to work with as you settle with an insurance company is an attorney who has never done this before. You need to work with an experienced group of highly skilled attorneys experienced in talking to and negotiating with insurance companies. We work with insurance companies daily.
People often believe that they can negotiate on their own just fine, without an attorney around to help them. This might be the case for a lucky few people. But in general, a person settling a claim with an insurance company is doing it for the first time in that person’s life. So there would need to be some luck on hand to get this right that first time.
Some people negotiate with insurance companies regularly. They are called attorneys! Your attorney has been in this position before and knows the ins and outs of getting the money that you need to reimburse you for all of your losses at one time. That is called the final offer, and you only get one chance to get that right.
By the time you have gone back and forth with an insurance company, your third offer will be much closer to what you want to settle for in this case. The ability to settle an offer does not often come in the first round but the final round. This is true for most offers. There could be a time when the first offer is the fairest, most sensitive to your needs offer that ever came down the pike, but it is rare. Instead, your offers should be increased according to your needs, your proof of expenses, verified personal injuries, and offered information regarding your losses, damages, and pain and suffering.
This is why an attorney is more than “handy” to have at this point. The final round of negotiations is the most important round by far. Your attorney can ensure that all of your needs are met in relation to your claim, your case, and your reimbursement for injuries and expenses.
If you are working to settle an offer of compensation for a personal injury in any circumstance, give us a call. We will work hard to get you the compensation that you deserve in every case. If you have been in an accident and have a claim for personal injuries, you need to give us a call. We work with insurance companies of every size, and we can negotiate the best settlement package for you. You need to get back the money you are owed, and we can help you get the money you expect. Just call our injury and accident attorneys at (833) 254-2923. We look forward to hearing from you today.