Why the Insurance Company Makes You Low Initial Settlement Offers
Insurance companies like to put you through your paces in settlement negotiations, and you need to apply pressure to them throughout the process. The Atlanta personal injury attorneys at Hall & Lampros LLP have recovered over $400 million for our clients, showing that we know how to get tough with insurance companies.
The insurance company will make you offers to settle your case that you are under no obligation to accept. You can expect to receive multiple settlement offers, gradually raising your amount of compensation. The way that you stand up for your own legal rights is by rejecting offers that are too low, upon the advice of your lawyer who is fighting for you.
Call the Atlanta personal injury law firm Hall & Lampros early in your case before the insurance company can get anywhere in its mission to undercut your legal rights. We offer free case evaluations to prospective clients, where you can learn more about your possible claim.
The Initial Settlement Offer Will Be Low
You may have received a settlement offer from the insurance company with their initial response to your personal injury claim. Although you may be pleased with the fact that they made you a settlement offer in the first place, it is by no means a cause for celebration. Not only is the settlement offer low, but it is shockingly so. You may be wondering why the insurance company even bothers to make an offer that is that much below the true value of your claim. The insurance company has their reasons, and it is up to you to be wise about what they are doing.
A Claim Involves a Long Negotiation
You need to view the claims process as a negotiation between you and the insurance company. They do not have the power over you that they feign to have. The insurance company cannot impose a settlement agreement on you. Instead, the process is an arms-length negotiation.
No negotiator is ever going to make their best offer to you right away. They will always give themselves room to negotiate, knowing that you are going to do the same thing. The insurance company is always going to have a bottom line, and they are not going to begin the negotiation anywhere close to it.
The Insurance Company Is Often Trying to Game You
In some cases, the insurance company is trying to catch you unaware of the true value of your case. If you do not have a personal injury lawyer on your side, you may never know how much you deserve. You may only learn the hard way after you have already accepted a lowball settlement offer and signed away your legal rights. They may be testing you to see what you may accept and how you will respond to their offer. The insurance company expects the settlement process to be the proverbial marathon, and the initial settlement offers are just the starting gun.
The insurance company may also want to send you a signal that they intend to settle your case without making an initial serious effort to do so. They may just want to telegraph that you will need to negotiate with them to get more compensation. The initial settlement offer may just be a placeholder, rather than an actual serious effort to settle the case.
The important thing is how you respond when the insurance company makes you a shockingly low settlement offer. Remember that it is just an offer, and not any type of dictation. The insurance company represents their policyholder, so they do not have that right. Nothing says that you need to knuckle under and take whatever the insurance company offers you.
You Do Not Have to Take What Is Offered
The insurance company expects you to ask for more money. When you do, you must have some type of credible threat that would make the insurance company stand up and take notice. Here, litigation is your ace in the hole. When you file a lawsuit, the insurance company must pay for their own lawyer, while yours works for you on a contingency basis.
How much money you end up getting is often directly proportionate to how hard you fight. If you do not go to the mat with the insurance company, you could end up sorely undercompensated. The best way to go toe-to-toe with the insurance company is to hire a personal injury attorney who knows their ways and how best to counter them.
Contact an Atlanta Personal Injury Law Firm Today
To begin a conversation with an Atlanta personal injury lawyer who can help you, call Hall & Lampros today. You can schedule a free consultation by phoning us at 404-876-8100. Our personal injury attorneys will get right to work, establishing your right to financial compensation and protecting it at all costs.
Chris has successfully represented numerous clients in catastrophic personal injury, employment law matters, class action, consumer protection, business tort, and legislative matters involving multi-million-dollar damages.