How To Negotiate Fair Settlement Claim on Your Car Accident When You Are Bombarded With Barely True Statements and Manipulative Offers?
Recently I worked on a case where the family in the car had, roughly and conservatively speaking, over one hundred thousand dollars in medical bills. The driver suffered severe injuries to his neck, back, and shoulders. The front-seat passenger had similarly severe injuries to the same areas, along with a pretty severe concussion requiring a series of scans and tests to ensure she did not have a traumatic brain injury. The defendant was a commercial vehicle and, as such, has a million-dollar policy on it. Match made in heaven, right?
Thankfully all those brain scans and neurological tests will be paid for, and the victims in this car accident won’t have to eat the cost of necessary medical treatment that is in no way their fault? I’ll stay out of exact numbers on this one, but let’s say that the insurance company isn’t tendering an offer that would cover their medical expenses. It is still early days, and this is their first counteroffer. So, what do we do from here? Litigation.
Negotiating with the Insurance Company
You might be wondering why we would want to negotiate in the first place. You might be wondering why we didn’t just sue them when we got their first deeply insulting offer? Well, first of all, you can’t do that. That is called making a bad faith claim. There is a whole process that you have to follow before you can sue an insurance company.
Second, the insurance company has the right to take its time to offer you a settlement. They don’t have to make a final offer immediately. They can try and lowball you, which they will do. The first offer is always low. Even if you are desperate, taking the first offer from your insurance company is a terrible idea. They will try to get you to sign a release form for maybe 1/5th of what your claim is worth as soon as possible.
How Does the Insurance Company Know What Your Claim is Worth?
It is their business. They have massive databases cross-referencing accidents, injuries, and locations that tell them what your car wreck is worth. Their goal is to get you to settle for less than that. How do they know they are getting you to settle for less than what the claim is worth? Because they will probably make an offer to you within a few weeks of your accident. Were you Life Flight-ed away from a terrible accident? Did you have to undergo dangerous and invasive surgery? Were experimental measures used to keep you alive? Expect a letter offering you $4,500.00 three weeks out.
The reason for this is incredibly cold-blooded. If you were in a bad wreck, you aren’t doing your best. It’s probably just hitting you exactly how expensive this whole thing is going to be. Suppose you are like most Americans, and you don’t have a ton of money in savings. If you were hurt, you’ve probably missed some work. But you need to know how much your case is worth, and to do that, you need to finish. Your medical treatment. Soft tissue damage? Herniated discs? Get checked out by a chiropractor and an orthopedic. After they clear you, then you can say, “Hey, my medical bills were this high.” When you do that, you can start thinking about how to structure your demand. The standard amount to ask for is “xspecials” or “times specials.” This is the number of your concrete expenses related to the accident (medical, lost wages, travel, etc.) multiplied by a number related to severity. If you are healing with no lingering issues, the standard amount to ask is three times special damages. Were you severely injured and dealing with a long recovery? We might ask five, seven, or even ten times special damages. Because living the rest of your life in pain is a pretty tough row to hoe.
Get a Good Attorney
There is no replacement for a good attorney. So please make sure you consult with an injury and accident attorney before taking legal action, and if you’ve been in a car wreck and want to make sure you get a fair deal from an insurance company, Call CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm at (833) 254-2923.