First Settlement Offers

Answer:

As with any personal injury claim where an insurance company has accepted liability, there will be a number of settlement offers that will be offered to a harmed party in a case. We’re often asked if clients should accept the first one. We never accept the first anything, unless they’re offering you the policy limits of that insurance policy upfront. If they’re offering you the policy limits, if the person that ran into your car only has a $15,000 insurance policy and they offer you the $15,000 upfront, well, that’s all they’re going to pay you, so of course, if that’s the first offer, then you accept it.

However, if they have $100,000 insurance policy and you have $50,000 worth of bills and they’re only offering you $55,000, are we accepting that? Absolutely not, because it doesn’t compensate for your injuries and for the emotional damages and trauma. We never accept the first offer and we never accept it on behalf of a client, unless it is the policy limits. We want to look at the value of the case and determine what the case is worth. If that first offer is reflective of what we believe that the case is valued then we may accept it. If it’s not reflective of that, then by no means will we accept it.

Oftentimes, too, before you ever get a chance to get to a lawyer, as soon as they know that you have an accident, the insurance company will call you. It’s really aggressive and it’s shameful, offering you some minimum amount. “We’ll send you $500 and we’ll pay for all your medical bills if you will accept.” They try to get you to low ball that because they don’t want you to be compensated for your emotional damages and your pain and suffering. If they call you and offer you something upfront, they’re trying to get out of something. Say no. Pick up the phone. Call our office. We’ll deal with the insurance company for you.

In fact, we’ll tell them to stop calling you and to deal with us related to your personal injury matter so that you can get the most that your case is worth and that the insurance company is not low balling you. If you’ve received this call from an insurance company and you’re not sure what to do, let us tell you what to do. Pick up the phone and call our office. We’ll deal with the insurance company for you and make sure that you get the best value for your case.