What Should You Do If an Insurance Adjuster Offers You a Low Settlement?

The first step is to carefully review everything with your attorney to understand exactly what the settlement is designed to cover. A settlement is a legal document, so you’ll want a legal mind taking a look at it; but sometimes the issue is quite small. There could just be a misunderstanding, some missing information that means the insurance company didn’t fully understand your situation, or even a simple computation error on your part or theirs. 

If it is something simple, your lawyer may be able to take care of it quickly by simply gathering and sending the right documents along with a response that clarifies what’s happened. But even if it’s not simple, knowing what the problem is exactly is always the first step.

It could be that you need more evidence to prove either what you have really suffered as a result of the injury or the fault of the person who caused your injury. If that’s the case, your lawyer can help you to do a deeper investigation to see if there might be any more evidence that can be used to make your claim stronger. The lawyer may even be able to access evidence which you can’t get easily on your own. 

For example, if you were in a car accident, a nearby store may not be willing to give you access to their security footage to see if it captured the accident, if you ask them yourself as a private individual. Your attorney, however, may be able to subpoena this footage if it might help your case. If you’re having trouble getting what you’re owed, you might also approach witnesses who previously were unwilling to testify, explain your situation, and see if they would be willing to give more details that might help the insurance company to fully understand the extent of what you’ve lost.

Insurance adjusters typically expect that you are going to negotiate, so an initial low settlement is not necessarily a reason to panic. While they could be trying to deny your full damages, it’s also very possible that they are expecting to negotiate with you and have started low to leave room to come up. Now is the time to talk with your lawyer about your settlement demand and ensure that it’s reasonable and go over some of the details that might be sticking points. 

For example, if your non-economic damages are particularly high, you might consider whether you could lower them. These are the damages most likely to cause an insurance company to balk because they can’t be easily quantified with bills and receipts. Another issue could be if you have ongoing medical expenses because of a permanent disability. The insurance company may disagree with your assessment of what that’s going to cost, and your lawyer may need to consult some new medical or life planning experts to verify the numbers.

If the insurance company simply refuses to come up with a number that’s even close to what your losses have really been, you may have no option but to bring a lawsuit. There are times when insurance companies play a game of chicken on this, betting that you won’t be willing to actually pull the trigger on bringing a legal claim. 

Once you do, that sometimes brings them straight to the bargaining table with a higher number. But there are always cases where nothing will get the insurance company to budge but actually taking the case to the courtroom. Your lawyer will let you know if this is a good idea or not and will fully prepare your case and argue it for you in the courtroom.

When people talk about compensation for pain and suffering or mental anguish, they’re talking about non-economic damages. These are some of the more controversial damages in a personal injury lawsuit because they cannot be quantified and there is no amount of money that can actually make up for pain or suffering. In addition, these are subjective. People are different, and what causes one person enormous mental anguish – possibly even to the point of developing PTSD or depression – might not bother another person nearly so much. Your lawyer will talk to you about strategies for proving the suffering and anguish you’ve actually endured. 

These damages are usually calculated in reference to your economic damages. You add up all your actual monetary losses, such as lost wages or property damage, and then multiply this number by one, two, three, four, or five. The more extreme your injuries were, the higher that multiplier number will be. If your economic damages are fairly minor and you had injuries which healed normally and didn’t keep you away from work for too long, you would probably multiply the number by just one. On the other end of the spectrum, if you suffered permanent paralysis as a result of your injuries, you would probably multiply the number by five.

You certainly can try to negotiate with the insurance company on your own, but it’s never advisable. Insurance companies have a lot of experience with negotiating these sorts of claims. They have lawyers on their side who have done this many times, and they have a strong incentive to minimize claims if they can. They know how to ask questions in such a way is to get you to say things that can be used against you. They are not above scouring your social media accounts in order to find something that can be used to suggest you weren’t injured as badly as you say or suffered as much as you really have.

Having a lawyer essentially makes the playing field more level. It means there’s someone fighting in your corner who also has experience and a thorough knowledge of personal injury law here in Texas. Your lawyer has also done this before and so will be aware of the sort of tricks of the trade that the insurance company may bring out to minimize your claim.

If you’ve been injured in an accident, don’t try to go it alone against a powerful insurance company, and especially if they are minimizing your losses and not offering settlements that are in your best interests. Contact us now at Cesar Ornelas Law San Antonio, TX for a free consultation. We also serve El Paso, Midland, Odessa, and Laredo and have offices in Hobbs, Carlsbad, and Albuquerque, NM and Corona, CA. Contact us toll free at (855) 710-4912 or visit our website to set up your initial consultation, and we’ll help you evaluate whatever settlement an insurance company may be offering.