Insurance Company Tricks

 Posted on April 07, 2011 in Firm News

From time to time, new clients will come to us after they are unhappy with an unreasonably low settlement offer that an insurance company has proposed for their injury. We are happy to fight for these clients to get them the better settlement amounts that they deserve. Unfortunately, many injury victims are confused about what an insurance company representative's offer actually is before they come to us. For example, an injury victim might be offered $20,000 for an accident that has caused $50,000 in medical bills. In such a situation, the victim reasonably presumes that when the insurance representative makes an offer of $20,000, that that amount is in addition to the insurance company's agreement to also pay the $50,0000 in medical bills and lost wages. Unfortunately, that presumption is probably NOT accurate. When an insurance company makes a flat offer of a certain amount to settle a claim, this means that from that amount all of the medical bills will still need to be paid, if possible. In the above scenario, the victim would not have been able to even pay all of her medical bills had she accepted the offer without seeking advice from an attorney. She would have taken an unreasonably low offer without realizing that the insurance company would not pay any of the bills.

But the above example is just hypothetical, right? Wrong! The above example is an actual description of a case we have taken on in the last several weeks. Sadly, this scenario plays out time and time again. This is just one more reason to contact an experienced personal injury attorney when you have been injured in an accident. Don't fall for the insurance company's tricks!