Car Accident Lawyers – Dealing With The Insurance Adjusters
The accident injury clients at our Texas Law Office have learned the best way to deal with insurance adjusters: just don’t deal with them at all. Adjusters don’t call our clients, we take them instead. When adjusters can’t talk to our clients, they don’t have a chance to twist their words around and use those words against them. More about our San Antonio Car Accident Lawyers
Many times an insurance company pressures you to settle your claim for less than it’s worth: often much less. We believe that accepting a fair settlement offer can be beneficial for you and your family after an auto accident. But accepting an unfair settlement can be devastating for your legal rights. When you accept a settlement offer, you waive your right to sue the defendant in the future for more compensation money from your injuries. The settlement is all that you will ever collect from the defendant. So it’s important not to accept an offer unless it’s fair. But how do you tell a good offer from a bad one?
Insurance companies know that most accident victims are everyday people who, as a result of this accident, are usually strapped for cash or maybe living off savings or some other “rainy day” assets, if they’re lucky. You have large medical and auto repair bills that need to be paid quickly. And perhaps you are unable to work as a result of your injuries. Or if a loved one was needlessly killed in that wreck, your already reduced income is used for monthly expenses, which means there’s little left over to pay your crushing accident-related expenses.
Insurance companies’ strategy is to entice accident victims with small amounts of fast cash that might get them back to even. But what if that’s not the end of your financial peril? The settlement you accept from an insurance company before you have an astute lawyer on your side who knows the real value of your damages never benefits you in the long run. But they’re always binding. Don’t let the defendant in your case get away with paying you less than you deserve. The only way to determine a fair settlement from an insurance company that wants to victimize you is with the assistance of an attorney specializing in vehicle injury accident settlements.
Maybe you can’t Afford to See a Doctor or Pay your Medical Bills.
Many people don’t have health insurance which could normally help them afford the treatment they need immediately after they’ve been involved in a car wreck. Even if an accident victim does have health insurance, the odds diminish every day that their treatment needs will be paid for through their health benefits because frankly, health insurance carriers keep changing the rules.
But whether or not they have health insurance is beside the point. Many accident victims are reluctant to get treatment for their injuries because they don’t think they can afford to take the time off of work that they’ll need to see a doctor, or they have higher-than-normal deductibles which preclude even using their health insurance.
Seeing a doctor and getting treatment for your injuries after an accident accomplishes two things. First, it’s essential to your health in general. And it’s necessary for your injury claim or lawsuit. Making every attempt to recover from your injuries strengthens your case because, parenthetically, if you don’t care about your health, why should the court or the insurance company fight for you?
If you can’t afford treatment, or if you already have medical bills that you can’t pay, there’s probably something that our local personal injury lawyers can do to help. We regularly work with doctors and healthcare professionals and can hook you up with the right healthcare providers who will take your dire personal situation into consideration. We have helped many of our clients receive the vital medical care they must have after an auto accident at no initial of pocket cost to them. But that’s not all. We can prove how the time you take off from work to get medical care should be part of the damage compensation owed to you by the defendant in your case.
You have a General Bad Feeling about How your Claim is Being Handled by the Insurance Company
If you have misgivings about how the insurance company is handling your case, trust your gut feelings. The more creative they are in finding ways to deny legitimate claims, the more money they’ll make. And one popular tactic is dragging their feet. This is especially true with most insurers who aggressively market themselves as “minimum coverage” auto insurance firms, although we admit we have been able to deal fairly with a few of them. Even so, it’s best for you to call a Texas lawyer if you have a bad feeling that “just won’t go away” or if any of these circumstances apply:
The insurance company offers you a settlement before the full extent of the medical treatment you’ll need is known.
The insurance company offers you less money than what’s due on your car loan, much less the vehicle’s full value.
The insurance company doesn’t offer you a rental car while your vehicle is being repaired.
The insurance company tells you they’ll pay your claim when you submit your bills but then refuse either to do so or keep stalling you when you ask for payment. (By the way, we NEVER send original bills to an insurer but instead, copies).
The insurance company takes too long to respond to you. This could mean that they’re investigating your claim behind your back or just “shining you on” and haven’t yet told you they have no intention of paying your accident claim).
The insurance company tells you that their settlement offer is “all that you’re entitled to” or “is the best you can hope for and their offer is generous”.
Again – and if you’re lucky – none of these circumstances apply. If so, the odds are pretty good that you can handle your case on your own, without the assistance of a lawyer. Sometimes, plaintiffs can successfully protect their own rights when they’ve been involved in a wreck which resulted only in damage to their vehicle and there were no injuries. If your car was damaged, but you’re not injured, insurance companies are bound by strict guidelines for compensating you for damages to your vehicle, or its replacement. Since these guidelines give them little wiggle room, they have very little opportunity to rip you off when they reimburse you for your repair bills or vehicle replacement. More here about car accident lawyers San Antonio
After a wreck in which your car alone has been damaged, take down the other driver’s contact and insurance information. Then, drive your car or have it towed to a mechanic. The mechanic will bill your insurance company directly, and your insurance company will pay the mechanic. Then, your insurance company will, in turn, submit the repair bill to the other driver’s insurance company for reimbursement.
But sometimes, these two insurance companies will dispute which of them should ultimately be responsible for these bills. But that’s not your problem unless it’s a ruse that leads to denial. Under normal circumstances, they settle their disagreements through a process called subrogation, without any further complication to you. In cases where the damage to (or replacement value of) your vehicle exceeds $5,000, it’s a good idea to at least talk with a lawyer about possibly representing your interests if the insurance companies can’t decide which of them is to pay. This keeps them from becoming a nuisance by involving you in an argument involving them, not you. And sometimes it even encourages to settle their dispute among themselves, and leave you out of it.
Put our years of experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your car accident claim, and how much compensation you can secure from your auto accident case, call our Law Firm now for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.
