In most personal injury claims, you and your personal injury lawyer will negotiate a settlement with the at-fault party’s insurance company. This will be in an attempt to recover compensation for damages caused by the at-fault party’s negligence, including medical bills, lost earning potential, and mental anguish. These negotiations can be difficult, as the insurance company will do everything it can to deny, delay, or devalue your claim to keep its profits up.
Insurance companies will employ insurance adjusters to search for information that can be used to limit your settlement, such as admissions of fault or pre-existing conditions. An experienced personal injury lawyer who has negotiated settlements can combat these attempts to ensure you recover fair compensation for your damages. The personal injury lawyers at The Russo Firm have experience negotiating with insurance companies. They can use that experience to put you in the best position to recover fair compensation for your personal injury damages.
Personal Injury Claims Require Settlement Negotiations With Insurance Companies
It is very rare for a personal injury victim to pursue compensation from the at-fault party directly because they will likely not have the money to pay for the full cost of your damages. If the at-fault party has insurance that applies to the type of personal injury incident they caused, you can file the personal injury claim with that insurance company. For example, if the at-fault party’s negligence caused a car accident, you can file an auto accident claim with their car insurance provider.
Read more: When Should You Hire a Car Accident Attorney?
Personal injury claims will not go straight to court. Instead, they will involve a personal injury settlement negotiation between both sides to determine if a fair settlement can be reached. This involves both sides collecting evidence to prove their side of the case. In your case, you will look for evidence that proves the at-fault party’s liability, and the insurance provider will look for evidence that can deny, delay, or devalue your claim.
An Insurance Company Will Try to Limit Your Settlement To Keep Its Profits Up
While you may assume the insurance company will try to provide you with monetary relief for your damages, it’s actually the case that they will work to ensure you do not get fair compensation. They do this to ensure they keep their profits up by not paying out large settlements for mistakes made by people who purchased their insurance.
Large companies, like insurance providers, are all about their profit. From their perspective, giving out a large settlement to pay for damages affects their level of profit. To ensure they do not have to do that, an insurance company will use a number of tactics to attempt to deny, delay, or devalue your claim.
How an Insurance Adjuster Can Try to Deny, Devalue, or Delay Your Claim
One way an insurance company will attempt to deny, devalue, or delay your claim is by employing an insurance adjuster to help with this process. An insurance adjuster is an agent working for the insurance company used to investigate claims. They must search out information to determine if the claim is legitimate and assess what the cost of a future settlement might be.
Although they are meant to determine the legitimacy of the claim, they work on behalf of the insurance company to ensure they pay as little as possible. Insurance adjusters will look for anything they can use to devalue your claim, so the insurance company can keep its profits up.
The following are some examples of evidence that an insurance company can use to deny, devalue, or delay your claim:
- An admission of fault
- Pre-existing condition
- Poor driving record
- Criminal history
- Lack of immediate medical treatment
- Interviews where you play down the impact of your injuries
- Social media posts that make it seem like you are fine
An Insurance Company Denying Liability
After receiving the evidence from the insurance adjuster, the insurance company can decide how to proceed with settlement negotiations. In some cases, the insurer may deny your claim outright because they bear no liability for your damages. The insurance adjuster may find evidence that determines the person the insurance company represents did not cause the personal injury accident or the severe injuries you are pursuing compensation for were not caused by the liable party.
If an insurance company refuses to negotiate a settlement to pay for your damages, you could file a personal injury lawsuit to provide pressure. An insurance company will likely not want to deal with a lawsuit due to the monetary cost, time commitment, and possible reputational damage. Once you file the personal injury lawsuit, they may be willing to come back to negotiations. If not, you can go through with the lawsuit to attempt to pursue fair compensation for your damages.
How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Help You Negotiate With an Insurance Company
As a person without personal injury claim experience, you will likely not be able to handle settlement negotiations efficiently. You may make a mistake that can hurt your ability to recover full compensation for your injuries. You need an experienced personal injury attorney on your side who knows the tricks insurance companies can use to limit your settlement.
Hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer can help with settlement negotiations because they can advise you on the best path toward recovering compensation. They can handle the negotiations and give you advice on how to handle an insurance adjuster should they request to speak to you. A personal injury lawyer can mitigate attempts from the at-fault party’s insurance adjuster to deny, devalue, or delay your claim and can help you assess damages, collect evidence to prove liability, and recover fair compensation for the full cost of your damages.
Contact The Russo Firm for Help With Negotiating With Insurance Companies
At The Russo Firm, our personal injury lawyers have decades of experience negotiating with insurance companies. We know how they will try to deny, devalue, or delay your claim and can combat these attempts to help you recover fair compensation. Our experienced personal injury attorneys offer personalized legal counsel catered to the specifics of your case to put you in the best position possible to recover compensation for the full cost of your damages.
If you were involved in a personal injury accident, such as a truck, car, or slip and fall accident, you could get a free consultation with the Russo Law Firm’s personal injury lawyers. Contact us at (561) 270-0913 or leave a message on our online contact page.
