Prior to settlement of a dispute, claimants usually negotiate with an insurance adjuster. For that reason, it helps for each claimant to gain an understanding of the adjuster’s role in the claims process.
An important aspect of all adjusters’ role involves learning as much as possible about the incident that formed the basis for a claim.
Accident Lawyer in Cambridge knows that claimants know far more about those incidents than the adjusters that strive to discover exactly what happened. The claimant’s job concerns treating an injury and gathering evidence for a single case; an adjuster’s day has to be spent dealing with 50 or more different cases.
Adjusters’ other goals
• Find a way to settle the dispute without involving the adjuster’s supervisor
• Get the claimant to accept a low payout
• Settle the dispute as rapidly as possible
Each adjuster has only a limited amount of authority, with respect to deciding on the amount of money that should go to the negotiating claimant.
An adjuster’s supervisor designates the maximum amount of money that can be promised in response to a demand letter. The supervisors try to give the simple cases, those with reports of only a minor injury, to the less-experienced adjusters. However, there are times when the severity of an injury does not become apparent until after a supervisor has assigned a seemingly simple case to one of the newer adjusters.
When that happens, then the supervisor could well get consulted, regarding the size of the payout from the insurance company. The need for such a consultation could slow the speed at which the pre-settlement procedures take place.
Still, claimants should not allow an insurance company to use a required consultation as an excuse for prolonging the pre-settlement process. Instead, the claimants’ efforts ought to focus on requesting a date, when the negotiating adjuster should know the supervisor’s decision.
Once provided with that date, a claimant should not hesitate to contact the adjuster on the mentioned date. At that point, the supervisor’s decision might be shared with the caller/claimant. It is possible that there could be one or more two days of waiting.
Still, supervisors and their supervised employees (adjusters) should not expect anyone to tolerate an extended delay, with respect to the delivery of an answer. Indeed, a personal injury lawyer would view such a delay as grounds for a lawsuit.
The insurance company would then become the target of such a lawsuit. It could be charged with “bad faith.” Any claimant has an advantage over an insurance company, if that provider of coverage has failed to demonstrate a display of good faith. Personal injury lawyers are quick to share that information with clients; insurers hope to keep that same fact hidden from any given claimant.
