If you are ever involved in a personal injury accident the first thing that you will do is hire a Personal Injury Lawyer in Cambridge. After that, you and your lawyer will file a personal injury claim! You’ll likely be talking with an adjuster from the defendant’s insurance company after you do this.
What drives the insurance adjuster?
The insurance adjuster has two main motives:
● Make sure that your payout is as little as possible
● Save as much money as possible for the insurance company. Believe it or not, the defendant’s insurance company loses money when they have to pay your personal injury settlement.
That said, insurance adjusters would rather not see you take your case to court. They would rather have you settle out of court because they would have to follow the judge’s orders in terms of a payout for a personal injury settlement if you did win. The adjuster doesn’t want to risk having to pay a high settlement if the judge and jury were sympathetic towards you and your case.
How does an insurance adjuster decide on an offer?
Your lawyer will tell you that the insurance adjuster will look at the following factors when deciding on an offer for you:
● Actual present and future expenses. A good example of this is current and future medical bills
● Lost income and/or lost ability to earn.
● Pain and suffering, and
● Other negative effects of your personal injuries
The number of damages for lost income and actual expenses are easy to estimate. All the insurance adjuster has to do is tally the numbers. Your lawyer will inform you of this. On the other hand, the adjuster will have a harder time calculating pain and suffering losses because these are subjective.
The insurance adjuster has to consider two other things when calculating your personal injury settlement. These are the limits of the defendant’s insurance policy and how strong your case is.
The defendant’s policy limits
The insurance adjuster is not going to give you a settlement amount that exceeds the defendant’s policy. For example, if the defendant had a policy limit of $100,000 even if your damages are $500,000.
How strong is your case?
You’ll probably get a bigger settlement if you have a strong case. The reason is because your chances of winning in court would be high.
Dealing With the Insurance Company
Now that you understand what makes the insurance adjuster tick, it’s time to work with your personal injury lawyer and use this to your advantage.
You should hire a lawyer. It will increase your chances of getting a settlement that you want, need, and deserve. Keep good documentation of your personal injuries and their extent. This can come in the form of photos, journals, medical records, itemized deductions, and more. You also want to send the defendant’s insurance company and lawyer a demand letter stating your injuries and the amount of compensation that you want from the defendant. This will help you get a bigger settlement.
Now that you know that the insurance adjuster is not on your side, you’re better off hiring a personal injury lawyer,if you want to have a shot at getting the settlement that you deserve.
