Too often, accident victims become victimized a second time by the insurance companies that are supposed to help them. Don’t let this happen to you. When the insurance company makes an initial settlement offer, be wary.
If you accept a personal injury settlement without a lawyer, you may not be getting as much as you would have with an experienced and knowledgeable attorney.
Insurance Companies Prioritize Their Profits
Insurance companies are not on your side. When it comes to liability insurance, the adjuster’s first loyalty is to the shareholders of their employer. In other words, they are there to maximize the profits of their employer by minimizing what they pay out for claims. Insurance companies make money by maximizing the premiums coming in while minimizing the money paid for claims going out. So the less an insurance adjuster settles your claim for, the better they have done their job.
The insurance adjuster handling your personal injury claim will probably call you and sound sympathetic while they ask for a recorded statement. But they’re often trying to get you to answer their questions in a way that allows them to deny your claim or minimize the compensation they pay you.
Another common trick they might pull is digging through your social media posts and pictures. If they can find photos of you looking like you’re enjoying yourself, they may attempt to use those pictures as proof that you’re not really injured. Any posts that say you’re going out with friends or having fun can be used to suggest that your injuries aren’t serious or even real.
Risks of Settling Without a Lawyer
Once the insurer makes a settlement offer, you should engage an attorney immediately. The insurer is counting on you to be desperate for money or not realize the true value of your claim.
When an experienced lawyer doesn’t review the offer before you accept it, you risk:
- Settling for less than you deserve – You might think your settlement will only cover lost wages and medical bills. Without a lawyer to look out for you and advise you of the true value of your case, you could miss out on money for pain and suffering, property damage, and loss of enjoyment of life caused by the accident.
- Health insurance rights to reimbursement – Many health insurance plans have a right to be reimbursed out of the settlement, but not all of them. Your lawyer can ascertain whether your health insurance really does have the right to be reimbursed out of your settlement. Your lawyer can also try to negotiate with that health insurance plan.
- Overlooking future costs – Your insurance settlement may not properly account for the cost of future medical needs or the way a serious injury could negatively affect your ability to earn an income. Those are both compensable losses that may require the services of medical, economic, and vocational experts to calculate.
- Underestimating long-term impacts – Accepting a personal injury settlement offer before you are fully healed and all the consequences of your injury are known is not a good idea. You deserve to be compensated for the full, ongoing impact your injuries have on your quality of life.
- Giving up your legal rights – Never sign a settlement agreement without a lawyer’s review. Once the document is signed and approved by the court, your claim is resolved. Even if you discover that you’ll need thousands more dollars to pay for medical care, you likely won’t be able to obtain more money.
- Neglecting crucial evidence – The strength of your evidence can directly impact your compensation. You need an experienced lawyer working for you who can dig up all the evidence and work to maximize your compensation.
- Misunderstanding lien implications – Sometimes, healthcare providers will agree to put a lien against your personal injury settlement instead of demanding that you pay them at the time of service. You could accept a settlement that does not include those lien amounts, leaving you with very little money to cover your other accident-related expenses once the liens are paid. Your lawyer is also better able to negotiate those liens in situations where there is too little liability insurance to cover everything.
- Making mistakes in the legal process – If you handle your own case, you could make procedural or legal errors at numerous points throughout your claim. Missing deadlines or overlooking required filings could cost you money or get your case dismissed.
- Missing other compensation sources – Personal injury lawyers are experienced in examining the facts and evidence from the accident to identify all potentially liable parties. Multiple at-fault parties could mean that the compensation you receive won’t be capped by one party’s insurance policy limits. Your lawyer also understands how to use underinsured motorist coverage from various possible sources that you might not think of.
- Misunderstanding the strengths and weaknesses of your case – Most people are not good at evaluating their own case. You are just too close to it all to have an objective viewpoint. It is common for the victim to overestimate or underestimate the value of their claim. You need an experienced personal injury lawyer to objectively analyze your case. Beginning negotiations without objectively understanding the value of your claim may make it much more difficult to arrive at a reasonable settlement.
- Falling for insurance company tactics – The insurance adjuster handling your claim may try to convince you that the low offer they’re making is the average personal injury settlement for a case like yours. All cases are fact specific. Be cautious. The insurer’s aim is usually to pay you as little as possible. You play right into their hands when you don’t hire a lawyer as soon as possible after your accident.
How Younce, Vtipil, Baznik & Banks Can Protect Your Rights
Here at Younce, Vtipil, Baznik & Banks, we see insurance company tactics and low settlement offers just about every day. We can protect your rights by uncovering the facts and evidence in your case and then using them to prove you deserve maximum compensation. We will review every offer of settlement for personal injury that the insurer makes – and if the offer is low, we’ll tell you what’s missing.
We handle all communication with the insurer or the at-fault party so that you don’t inadvertently harm your case by saying the wrong thing. And if the insurer simply won’t make you a fair offer, we’ll be prepared to take your case to court and put it before a judge and jury.
Contact Our Personal Injury Attorneys in Raleigh, NC Today
Don’t accept a personal injury settlement without getting an experienced lawyer like those at Younce, Vtipil, Baznik & Banks to review it. We have over 100 years of combined experience in personal injury cases, and we’ve secured over $150 million for our clients.* Here’s what our client Francis Hale said about working with our law firm:
“Joe Baznik did a wonderful job on my behalf. He is responsive and very clear about the process. I had two surgeries on the shoulder, and he steered the course from the initial point, through mediation and settlement that was fair to me with the least amount of strain. Well done Joe~!”
Call us today at 919-661-9000 for a free initial consultation. Let us handle your case while you focus on healing.
*Each case is unique, and past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
About the Author
David E. Vtipil
David Vtipil is an attorney at Younce, Vtipil, Baznik & Banks, P.A. and concentrates his law practice on personal injury and workers' compensation. David E. Vtipil was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 21st Edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Workers’ Compensation Law.
