Insurance companies are not always your friends, but you must effectively deal with them. While it is important to swiftly talk with your insurance carrier after an injury in a motor vehicle collision, avoid any communication with the at-fault driver’s insurance company.
Some insurance companies resort to trickery and unseemly tactics when dealing with people injured in motor vehicle accidents. Such companies hope for a quick settlement that will only cause a minor ripple to their bottom line.
Quick settlement, lowball offer
Here are three tricks that insurers use in motor vehicle accident cases:
- Getting you to talk (too much): The important thing for you to remember is: Do not talk with the at-fault driver’s insurance company. They may get you on the phone and continue to ask questions in hopes that you will provide them with information that would be detrimental to your case. An insurance company will misinterpret what you say and twist your words to its advantage.
- Seeking a quick settlement: An insurance company wants to settle the case as soon as possible and will likely give you a lowball offer – one that is worth much less than what you could actually receive. Its representatives will pester you, hoping you will give in. Listen to them calmly and patiently, but do not take the bait. Then hang up.
- Stretching out your case, forcing a settlement: This tactic is despicable, but, sometimes, insurance companies resort to doing this. As time goes by and the case drags on, you – as the injured party – may need money soon to pay for medical bills and for lost income. Insurance companies may sense your desperation and view this as a “smoke out” to get you to accept the lowball offer it has manipulated.
Understand that the other party’s insurance company may lean on these strategies simply to gain an advantage and deny you the compensation you rightly deserve.
An attorney will fight for you
In these situations, it is crucial that you have a legal ally ready to provide guidance and fight for you, battling the at-fault driver’s insurance company at every step. An attorney will collect evidence, hire investigators and confront the at-fault driver’s insurance company that attempts to avoid its responsibilities.