Top 3 Costly Ways The Insurance Gets You to Settle

In some situations after filing a personal injury claim against the at fault party's insurance policy, the adjuster may make an offer to settle the your claim quickly. This involves a financial offer to send you a check to cover your medical bills and pain and suffering. They do this for two reasons: (1) they hope that the victim is desperate for the money and not willing to endure through a longer settlement process which could take months or more to settle and (2) Many auto accident victims generally get excited when they hear about the immediate possibility of receiving a check without having to provide any documentation (for injury damages) because they quickly want to put the legal matter behind them and focus on their life.

With the exception of rare situations, it is not advisable to accept the insurance's 'pre-demand letter' settlement offer for a variety of reasons. First, in many situations where a victim feels fine immediately after an accident, soft tissue injuries may manifest into persistent pains that won't go away without adequate treatment. Second, in some situations, seemingly not so serious soft tissue injuries may result in additional diagnosis which could require the need for referral to a specialist for additional treatment. Third, due to subrogation considerations where the victim used their health insurance, the victim may remain liable for medical bills that were paid by their health insurance. Lastly, the insurance adjuster's offer to settle your claim before you have been adequately evaluated by your doctor or other medical provider (Chiropractor, Physical Therapist, etc) will most likely be far under the value of your personal injury claim and may result in the victim ending up in financial hardship by taking the first, quick offer.

As you see, the tragic result of taking a quick settlement offer is that it may stick the victim with the responsibility of paying for their medical care in excess of the settlement offer that was accepted. Once the victim accepts the offer, the insurance adjuster will have them sign an agreement before they get the check and this serves to 'release' their insured (the at fault driver) from any future lawsuit resulting from the accident.

Therefore, when the victim runs out of money from the settlement but still has medical expenses to cover, they cannot go back to the insurance company asking for more money. In this situation, the injured passenger is stuck bearing the burden of covering their expenses.

We are always available to provide free legal consultation for any personal injury or auto accident matter to help you protect your case value and get the most settlement offer possible.