Immediately following an accident, individuals often deal with tremendous physical suffering, emotional distress, and financial concerns. Getting through the law and finding a way to get reimbursement for injuries can become complicated and overwhelming. Without representation by a personal injury lawyer, victims of accidents can easily become victims of insurance adjusters.
Accident victims who want to file a personal injury claim need to navigate a maze of legal procedures, paperwork, and negotiations with insurance companies. This is impossible without the help of an experienced lawyer.
This article discusses the various tactics used by insurance adjusters to reduce or reject a claim.
Underestimated Claim Value
One of the main strategies for insurance companies is to provide lowball amounts of settlement that do not comprehensively cover victims for the extent of their damage. The victims, without proper representation, may not understand what their claim is truly worth. A claim’s worth is not only the current medical cost but also the cost of future medical, lost income, and non-economic damages.
Delay, Deny, Defend
A great number of insurance companies practice tactics related to personal injury claims that have collectively come to be referred to as “Delay, Deny, Defend”. This is achieved by delaying the claim, denying the legitimacy of the claim, and defending these actions through a very aggressive litigation process.
Delay Tactics
Insurance companies also attempt to delay the process with unwanted document requests, slow and unwarranted investigations, or sometimes just by not responding to communications on time. Delay mostly leads to a financial crisis associated with the victims, which makes them settle for the low compensation offered.
Denial of Claims
Insurance companies can just deny valid claims, even when the liability is clear. This can be done on the grounds that your injuries are not as bad as you claim, they can argue that you contributed to the accident or that your injuries were pre-existing. Such denials will then leave the victim to either accept an unfair settlement or pursue expensive litigation.
Aggressive Defense
If a victim decides to seek damages even after deny and delay tactics, insurance firms will employ extremely aggressive defense tactics. They may attempt to discredit a victim’s character, deny the severity or truth of a victim’s injuries, or claim that the damages being sought are excessive. When cases like these end up in court, most of those insurance companies have tremendous resources and lawyers on their sides. Therefore, unless one has adequate legal representation, it usually becomes very hard for individuals involved in such cases to obtain justice in a court of law.
Conclusion
Without legal representation, accident victims are exposed to a variety of tactics employed by insurance companies and opposing parties, all of which go a long way in seriously undermining the ability of the affected individuals to get fair compensation. From offering a lowball settlement and using delay tactics to attempt to shift blame and deny liability, these strategies are implemented in a bid to protect the financial interests of the insurance companies at the expense of the victim’s rights. The most important benefit of having an experienced personal injury attorney is that they protect the interests of accident victims, and further increase their chances of receiving compensation.
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