An accident is a traumatic experience, especially when you suffer serious injuries. All too often, the distress only continues in the days and weeks after a car accident when an injury victim deals with the at-fault party’s insurance company to recover their damages like property damage, medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering. Despite their compassionate tones and reassuring ads, insurance companies rarely pay out on large claims without using predictable tactics to delay, deny, or undervalue the payout to protect their profits. It’s always best to hire an experienced New Haven car accident attorney after a car accident and then direct all communication with insurance companies to your lawyer. knowing what to expect from an insurance company after an accident and how to handle resistance from an insurance company after a collision claim can help ensure you recover the full value of your car accident claim.
Avoid Early Settlement Offers
Often, the insurance company of an at-fault party calls an accident victim very soon after the crash with a fast settlement offer. Unfortunately, many traumatized injury victims quickly accept this settlement offer to stabilize their finances while they recover. Instead of accepting an early settlement offer, hire an attorney to investigate the accident, document evidence of liability, and carefully calculate your damages to present a compelling case for full compensation. An early settlement offer is almost always much lower than the amount you are entitled to and requires you to sign away your right to a lawsuit.
Don’t Tolerate Delays
Unfortunately, many car accident victims find that when they deny an early, low-balled settlement offer, the insurance company begins a series of delaying tactics. By delaying the processing of a claim or delaying negotiations for a settlement, they hope to frustrate injury victims enough that they then accept the next settlement offer the insurer throws out—typically one that does not cover the victim’s full damages. An experienced car accident attorney ensures that an injured client does not fall victim to unnecessary delaying tactics.
Avoid Speaking on Recorded Lines
The insurance adjuster assigned to your case is there to protect profits by paying as little as possible to a car accident victim, not only for their property damage but for their essential medical care costs and income loss. One way they do this in comparative negligence insurance states is to assign the injury victim an undue percentage of fault for the accident. For example, by claiming that the injury victim was 25% at fault for the accident, they bring down a $100,000 claim to a $75,000 payout and save money to protect company profits.
When you receive a phone call from an insurer and they tell you that you are speaking on a recorded line, you should direct them to call your attorney instead. Insurance companies sometimes take an injury victim’s casual remarks on a recorded line out of context to use against them as supposed admissions of fault or to show that the victim’s injuries are not as serious as they’ve previously stated.
Don’t Give an Insurer Medical Authorization
Some insurance companies ask for medical authorization so they can review the medical report of a victim’s injury. Then, they scour the medical history seeking a previous injury or pre-existing condition to blame as the true cause of the victim’s pain or other symptoms.
Close Your Social Media Accounts
While you await a settlement or court case after a collision, it’s best to avoid posting or commenting on social media. Instead, either temporarily close your accounts or increase your privacy settings. All too often, insurers target an injury victim’s social media accounts to “catch” them appearing more fit than they claim or to scan through past posts to see if the victim had a more sedentary lifestyle than they claim if a victim claims damages like “loss of enjoyment of life” due to mobility problems from the accident.
These are common insurance company tactics often used against car accident victims to undervalue, delay, or deny claims. An attorney helps protect their client against these methods so they recover the full value of their claim.
