After an auto accident and the first doctor visit, the injured person begins to think about how they can pay the medical bills and get their car fixed. There is the towing bill, the tow yard storage fee, pain, headaches, deductibles…
The first step is usually to set up an insurance claim with the other driver’s insurance company. However, most people don’t realize that they are entering an extremely adversarial relationship.
But there can be no doubt that the insurance adjuster on the other side of the phone knows just how adversarial the relationship is and will look to take advantage of you at every turn. The adjusters are trained from day one to figure out ways to deny, weaken and delay your claims.
This isn’t just some sort of exaggeration. The adjusters actually attend a sort of academy where they “learn” what sort of injuries are “legitimate”, how long it should take each injury victim to get better and are told by upper lever management how much pain you are really suffering.
The first goal of an adjuster is to deny a claim.
Denying the claim is best done by pretending to do an investigation. Adjusters will lie to you and say they cannot determine liability until they obtain a recorded statement. It won’t matter if it is a rear-end crash at a red light with three eyewitnesses and their insured driver agrees that he caused the accident through his negligence. It also won’t matter if there are 12 eyewitnesses that saw their insured run a red light and smash into the victim’s car. The goal is not to fairly assess the claim but to find a basis for denying the claim.
The recorded statement is a chance to get admissions from the injury victim and to limit the claims that may be made. It is also an opportunity to try to trick the victim into saying something that will give the adjuster a reason to blame the victim for the crash or point the finger at someone else. You can be certain that giving a recorded statement is a risky move.
The second goal of the adjuster is to delay payment of the claim.
Once it is undeniably clear that the insured driver is at fault for the crash, you would think that the adjuster would just pay the claim. Wrong! Now they begin to work on the delay of payment of the claim. This serves two purposes. First, why pay money when you can keep it in the bank? Delay of payment on a claim lets the insurance company hold onto billions of dollars annually and earn money on that money.
Delay of payment or settlement negotiations also serves the second purpose that is to soften up the victim for a low-ball settlement offer. The delay in the settlement will set the victim up to feel relief that the whole ordeal is over when they finally squeeze some money out of the insurance company. They are priming the car accident victim for a lower settlement.
The third goal of the insurance company is to defend the claim no matter what.
This brings us to the final strategy employed by the insurance adjuster in your claim. Defend! Defend! Defend! Many times adjusters identify the claims that are the most unprofitable to litigate and begin the process of vigorously defending against these claims.
This means that the goal is to fight claims where they know that the victim cannot do anything about it. They particularly like to defend against claims by individuals without an attorney because it is like shooting fish in a barrel for the professional insurance defense firms.
If you are the victim of the insurance industry’s, Delay, Deny and Defend tactics, call Whitener Law Firm. We know how to deal with these tactics and maximize your personal injury settlement.
If you were injured due to someone else’s negligence, call an auto accident attorney from Whitener Law Firm to find out what we can do to get you the money you deserve. For a free consultation regarding a personal injury claim, contact us at 505-883-7877.
There is NO FEE unless we win your case.