The Ten Ways We Go About Settling Your Personal Injury Claim
As Personal Injury Lawyers and because of our decades of experience we have had incredible success in settling personal injury claims with insurance adjusters. What we do for every personal injury client is as follows:
1. Communicate With The Insurance Adjuster
We know that the insurance adjuster has the checkbook and not the defense attorney. We, therefore, always keep a line of communication directly with the adjuster open because we know that the outside defense lawyer has his own agenda, which is to bill on your claim. Accordingly, we always establish and maintain an excellent relationship with the adjuster, whether or not we file a lawsuit. We establish this relationship from the very beginning.
2. Collect Relevant Evidence
We always provide the adjuster the ammunition the adjuster needs to negotiate on our behalf with the person who has the ultimate authority to obtain the highest amount possible to resolve our client’s claim.
3. Document Everything
In the very beginning, when we are in communication with the adjuster, we provide all the injury and damage information in detail. This assures that the insurance adjuster will place the highest evaluation of the Insurance Carrier’s Claim reserve on your personal injury claim, which will be on a constant and continuous basis. When there is a higher reserve on a claim, it will ultimately mean that there will be less resistance to getting a higher settlement for you in the end.
4. Focus on the At-Fault Party
We never discount our client’s claim by acknowledging comparative or contributory negligence no matter what. As a matter of fact, we never discount our client’s claim at all. We only discuss the defendant’s or at fault driver’s exposure, especially in cases where we do not have the best liability but our client has suffered significant objective injuries.
5. Maximize the Value of Your Claim
If it is a significant injury case, we always argue from the very beginning that the value of our client’s claim exceeds the Insurance policy limits of the at-fault insurance company. We never give a settlement number until the insurance company is ready to give us their settlement number.
6. Be Firm in Negotiations
We will never allow an adjuster to try to shave a few dollars off a policy limit settlement even though they should be tendering the full policy to our client. Insurance adjusters do this all the time because it makes them look good to their supervisors.
7. Exercise Patience
Even when the insurance adjuster tells us there’s no more money on the claim, we continue to make more counter-demands. We know that patience is a virtue. We know that negotiations don’t stop just because an insurance adjuster tells us that there is no more money available.
8. Be Proactive About Monetary Demands
If we are at the mediation of our client’s claims, we make our monetary demand prior to the day of the mediation. We reinforce to the Insurance company that all prior demands are off the table.
9. Require the Insurance Adjuster’s Presence
We force the adjuster (or the money person) to be physically present at the mediation, and we will get in writing that the insurance company representative who is at the mediation will have full authority to settle.
10. Remain Diligent
If we don’t have the above conditions met, we will not attend a mediation proceeding. We know from decades of experience that it becomes a game. Without the above conditions being met, we will not be able to obtain full value of our client’s claim on mediation day and it is, therefore, a waste of time. It also shows the insurance company our strength.
The above ten steps are how we will obtain our client’s absolute highest possible amount through our proven settlement techniques with the insurance company adjuster. You will get this full advantage if you allow us to represent you. We want to earn your trust and confidence by allowing us to represent you. If you have any other questions concerning how we will obtain top value for your injuries, call us at 1-800-718-4658.
Jeffrey Nadrich
Jeffrey Nadrich is a nationally-recognized California plaintiff’s personal injury attorney. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law. He has successfully represented thousands of injury clients over the last 40 years.
