An insurance adjuster initiates the negotiations between a claimant’s representative and the company that has employed the adjuster. An adjuster’s initial offer triggers the start of those initiations. How do adjusters arrive at the number that gets mentioned in that offer?
The investigation behind each of those offers
The insurer’s investigating employee obtains and studies the police report for the accident that leads to the claim. Another investigator speaks with the policyholder, who is the person that the claimant has held responsible for the reported accident.
The adjuster checks to see if the claimant has filed other claims in the past.Some of the adjuster’s time gets devoted to studying the terms of the policy that was purchased by the person that has been held responsible for the accident. What are the limits, as stated in that policy? An insurance company will never pay more than the amount that has been given as the policy’s limit.
Adjusters also seek evidence of the claimant’s losses. Such evidence could take the form of a medical bill, a proof of the claimant’s earnings, or a bill for repairs to damaged property.
Facts related to the adjuster’s first offer
All adjusters’ initial offers represent some percentage of one adjuster’s perceived value for a given claim. The percentages used by each of the different adjusters reflect the facts of the case, along with answers to 2 important questions.
What are those 2 questions?
#1) What are the claimant’s chances for winning, if this case advances to the trial stage?
#2) What would a jury be apt to award this particular claimant, if this case were tried in court?
What facts suggest an answer to one or both questions?
Is there any evidence that the plaintiff somehow helped to cause the accident, or helped to cause the injury that resulted from the same accident? If uncovered, such evidence would make it harder for the plaintiff to win his or her case.
Is there any evidence that the claimant’s actions managed to make the reported injury worse? Did the claimant delay the effort to present the injury to a doctor? Exposure of such facts could work to reduce the plaintiff’s chances for winning.
Is there any evidence that a 3rd party helped to cause the accident? For example, did some technician make a mistake, when performing a checkup on the vehicle that was driven by the responsible motorist?
Has this claimant hired a Personal Injury Lawyer in St Thomas? Claimants that have failed to hire a lawyer receive a low initial offer. Insurance companies try to take advantage of the fact that many claimants care more about getting money quickly, as opposed to obtaining a fair compensation, following a reasonable wait.