Category: Insurance

Have you been the victim in a personal injury accident and are now looking at negotiating with the insurance company involved to attempt to secure compensation? If so, you should take a moment and seriously consider hiring professional help. The fact of the matter is that insurance companies will exhaust any and all possible angles to reduce the amount of money they have to pay you. In order to understand exactly why this is the case, and why legal counsel is your best option, let’s take a look at a few of the more pertinent and less obvious reasons that insurance companies have for avoiding settling with victims.

Revenue Source

First of all, don’t make the mistake of believing that your premium is the main way that insurance companies make their income. In reality, they earn the vast majority of their money through investment. That means that they have large sums of money held up in different investment options and earn more the longer they have it in place. Additionally, interest payments can different greatly depending upon the amount of money in question – in general, you earn more money in interest the more money you have invested.

This is one of the main reasons that insurance companies fight notoriously hard to avoid paying victims compensation. When they part with large sums of money, they lose their main income source. In fact, they stand to lose far more than they pay out. If they lose a particularly large sum of money, for example, market prices could be negatively affected. This could impact their investments, not to mention the fact that they suddenly have a much smaller amount of money upon which to earn interest.

Attorneys Can Help

Most insurance companies are far more likely to settle with victims who have hired legal aid. Note that for this reason, they will go to great lengths to discourage you from hiring an attorney. The reason for this is simple: as explored above, insurance companies stand to lose big time if they pay out large settlements. Attorneys are better able to secure those large settlements because they understand exactly how the insurance company works and can better anticipate their manipulative tactics than other individuals can.

Delay and Deny

Remember the section above where we learned that insurance companies make most of their money from investments and the interest they earn from them? Well, welcome to yet another reason to hire an attorney. Insurance companies will go out of their way to delay paying a settlement, and that’s especially true if the case in question is likely to win. They have more to lose than you do and will therefore expend a lot of effort to delay the payment as long as possible in order to continue to earn interest on the money in question for as long as they can. Additionally, they often flatly deny claims that have a great chance of winning in court because it forces victims to seek legal aid. This takes them more time and effort, allowing the insurance company to keep the sum in question a little bit longer.

Hiring an attorney from the get-go, of course, is a great way to avoid this game as much as possible.

You’re on Candid Camera

Maybe you’re not convinced that an attorney is necessary. The adjustor you’re speaking with seems very nice, after all, and they’re happy to take a lot of time out of their day to discuss the problems you’re experiencing in detail. That must mean that they truly understand how much you need the compensation in question in order to recover, right?

Well, no, as it turns out. In fact, adjusters are trained to record absolutely everything you say and do during negotiations so that they have more material to work with when it comes to discrediting you and lowering the amount of money they have to pay out. Do not forget that you are being recorded and that everything you say and do will be used against you. This is the main reason attorneys will instruct you not to speak with an adjuster until you’ve met with them.

Be Suspicious of Quick Claims

Everything we’ve discussed until now has talked about just how advantageous it is for insurance companies to deny your claims and drag out the process. If your insurance company is all too eager to settle, then, you should take some time and think about why. Why would they be willing to give you money right away when they could force you to go to court and make money in the meantime?

If you have a particularly great claim and they could stand to lose a lot more than they’re offering you if they go to court, you might be surprised at just how quickly they settle.

Insurance companies aren’t interested in what is best for you. They don’t care about your needs or your injuries. Their focus is on making and keeping money. For that reason, you should reach out to experienced personal injury attorneys for help immediately if you are facing a personal injury claim. The lawyers at Frederick and Hagle can help. Call 217-367-6092 today for a Free Consultation.