Dealing with a truck accident claim can be exhausting and frustrating, particularly when an insurer is undermining your experience. You can expect the insurer to make lowball settlement offers during negotiations. Their goal is to reduce their payouts. While this is an unethical practice, some insurers still engage in it as part of their strategy. Because of this, you need to learn to such red flags when bringing an insurance claim. This allows helps protect your legal rights and ensure you receive fair compensation for the injuries and damages you have suffered. Also, you should trust a Ponton Law truck accident attorney to be your best ally in this case.
How to Know an Insurer is Lowballing You
Quick claim settlement offers from an insurance company is not a good sign. Rather, it means the insurer wants to close your case quickly at the expense of your legal rights. Assessing a claim takes time, particularly if catastrophic injuries are involved. Thorough investigation and careful examination are necessary in such cases. If an insurer rushes to make a settlement offer, this clearly shows their intent to resolve your accident claim before you understand its worth. Below are signs the insurance company may be lowballing you:
- Downplaying your injuries. The majority of insurance claims adjusters will downplay the severity and extent of your injuries, so the insurer won’t pay your treatments in full. The adjuster handling your claim may argue you are not as seriously injured as you claim. Also, they may suggest your injuries resulted from a pre-existing condition.
- Not being transparent. Before you accept the settlement offer of an insurer, ask for an explanation and justification for their proposition. If the company cannot tell how it came up with the figure, it may be lowballing your settlement. The company must provide you with a breakdown of the things it considers when it computes the offer.
- Shifting blame. An insurance adjuster may shift some or full blame to you, asserting that you contributed to the truck accident and the resulting injuries. In some instances, they may dismiss evidence that proves their policyholder is liable for the injuries you have suffered. Under Georgia law, the damages you can recover will be decreased based on your percentage of fault. As the insurer shifts blame to you, they can pay less than you deserve.
- Using coercion and pressure. Insurers will leverage your lack of experience and may coerce you to accept their initial offer. The company may argue that this is a non-negotiable offer, so you can believe that you do not have another choice. Also, it may make you believe you do not have much time to take the offer, pressuring you into accepting it immediately and preventing you from speaking with an attorney.
Reasons Insurers Make Lowball Settlement Offers
Insurers have different reasons for lowballing settlements, but they do not conduct some of them in bad faith. For instance, some insurance companies use AI to calculate a claim’s value. Some programs are used to compute claim settlements. Insurers use this strategy to process many claims simultaneously. But such offers are usually unfair.
Typically, calculations are based on internal algorithms, which depend on similar cases an insurer handled in the past. As a result, the nature of a claim being analyzed is oversimplified. This makes it important to have an attorney assess the settlement offers you are getting. The attorney can offer insights into the case’s nuance that computer programs may overlook. Also, they assess offers with a human element, letting insurance providers factor in pain and suffering, emotional distress, and other non-economic damages in their computation.
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