If you or a loved one has been injured in a serious car wreck, you may feel pressured by your insurance company (or the other driver’s insurer) to act more quickly than you are comfortable with or accept a settlement offer that you know isn’t fair. Car insurance companies, at the end of the day, are looking out for their profit margins. As such, they may not be interested in truly helping you and your family.
Insurance companies are also known to sometimes use unfair tactics or “tricks” to try and get clients to agree to low settlement amounts or agree to policy terms that don’t favor them. As unfortunate as it is, some insurers or adjusters will do anything they can to save their company a buck or two. Below are some of the tactics used by insurance companies to try and get what they want:
- Deliberate Delay. They know that often you are in a financial squeeze. Even if you have good health insurance, the fact that you aren’t working may make it difficult to pay co-pays and deductibles. The insurance company knows you are getting dunned by doctors, so they take their time with your claim.
- Requesting Unnecessary Information. Insurance companies will insist that you track down every little piece of information before “we can evaluate the claim”. Even if the information they are now asking for would not add a penny to their offer, they are happy to wait another six weeks for you to track it down. Meanwhile, they are earning interest on the money they are NOT paying you.
- Disputing Medical Treatment. Even though I’ve never met an adjuster who went to medical school, they seem to know just what treatment is right for you. Usually, they “know” that you were over-treated because “our computers say you should have been better by now”.
- Nickel and Dime the Medical Charges. Think about it. If they shave just 5% off your claim and can do that to the millions of claims made each year, they get richer.
- Misrepresenting Insurance Benefits. This is a big one. They tell you that there is only $100,000.00 in coverage. We file suit and “magically” find an umbrella policy. Don’t you think they knew that just by looking on their computers before we filed suit? Of course they did.
- Acting Like Your Friend and Making False Promises. Watch out for the adjuster who befriends you, shows up at your house and promises to pay your future medical bills. This is a tactic to stop you from hiring a lawyer. (Believe me, they won’t come around to your house once you have a lawyer). Those future medical bills? Well, they will pay them until their computer says “too much, too much, this claim is costing us too much!”.
By looking out for the above tactics, you can ensure you and your family get the settlement offer you deserve. If you’re still facing difficulties with insurers, you may need the help of a Paducah, KY car accident lawyer. With legal help, you can fight and win against haggling insurance companies and get the recovery time and compensation you need to move forward. Daryl T. Dixon is ready to answer any questions you may have regarding a potential case.
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The tactics listed above are an excerpt from Daryl T. Dixon’s book entitled, “The Five Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Kentucky Car/Semi-truck Accident Case”. For a free copy of this book, don’t hesitate to get in touch today.
