While most Americans have probably seen GEICO commercials featuring their iconic gecko mascot, many don’t know what GEICO stands for.
GEICO stands for the Government Employees Insurance Company. The company is the second largest insurer of automobiles in the United States and insures over 28 million vehicles.
If you are wondering about how much money you may receive in a GEICO car accident settlement, this article will answer many questions you may have, such as “How much does GEICO pay typically?” “Can you trust GEICO to pay what your settlement is worth?” “How long might they take to settle?” etc.
What Is the Average GEICO Settlement Insurance Payout?
If you are wondering what the average number is regarding GEICO settlement payouts, the answer is that there isn’t a solid number to determine the average payout.
Payouts vary based on the extent of your injuries and property damage sustained in your accident.
That being said, if you’re about to file a GEICO car accident claim, you should know that GEICO is known to try to lowball you for initial settlement offers.
Examples of GEICO claim settlement offers reported on the internet, in relation to the amount of medical bills involved in those claims, include:
- $15,000 offered with $14,950.18 in medical bills¹
- $6,000 offered with $12,500.00 in medical bills¹
- $4,600 offered with $5,943.74 in medical bills¹
- $1,300 offered with $4,094.60 in medical bills¹
- $1,500 offered with $12,853.77 in medical bills¹
- $6,155.31 offered with $7,035.29 in medical bills¹
- $9,400.00 offered with $10,200.00 in medical bills¹
GEICO adjusters will typically not offer a total which represents over 20 percent more than the medical bills involved, meaning the initial offers typically value the accident victim’s pain and suffering as less than 20 percent the value of their medical bills. In fact, as you can see above, a GEICO adjuster will, in many cases, offer less money in the initial settlement offer than the total medical bills.
Since GEICO insurance claims will often involve lowball offers, you may need to file a lawsuit or even go to trial in order to receive a fair amount of money in your car insurance claim. For this, you’ll need to hire a lawyer.
GEICO insurance adjusters will typically offer much larger settlement offers once they realize an experienced car accident lawyer is handling the case, can sue them and can win that lawsuit. Examples of GEICO settlements involving car accident lawyers which have been reported on the internet include:
- $300,000 for a woman who was rear-ended and needed back surgery¹
- $300,000 for a passenger who needed neck surgery after being in an accident¹
- $300,000 for the family of a man who was killed after the vehicle he was in was rear-ended at high speed while stationary at a red light¹
- $290,000 for a woman who suffered nerve damage after an accident¹
How Long Does It Typically Take for GEICO to Settle?
It is reported by GEICO that the company typically sends settlement funds within six months of accident claims being filed. However, the amount of time it will take to receive funds after filing GEICO claims will vary greatly based upon how much the company decides to fight regarding the amount of financial compensation you’ll receive. An insurance adjuster at the company might question whose fault the accident is even when the police report says their insured is at fault. They might question how severe the injuries of car accident victims are. By raising doubts like these, GEICO claims adjusters try to limit how much money they’ll need to pay injury victims. They will even goo so far as to try to not pay anything at all.
Having to deal with tactics like these is what can make compensation take a long time to receive. Receiving compensation in a timely manner is important. However, ensuring you get enough money to pay for the costs of recovery now as well as any future costs is vital.
If you want to make sure you receive enough compensation to cover your recovery costs, it’s best to hire experienced personal injury lawyers like the lawyers at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers.
When Will I Receive My GEICO Settlement Check?
Again, the amount of time it will take for you to receive a check representing a fair settlement offer will depend upon how much GEICO decides to fight your claim. The amount of dirty tactics GEICO will use to try to minimize your compensation will determine how long it takes you to receive a settlement check.
The only recourse injury victims have in terms of dealing with insurance companies’ dirty tactics is to sue them over lowball offers, and for that you’ll need experienced car accident lawyers like the attorneys at our firm on your side.
Factors That Impact the Value of Your Claim
The size of your claim will depend upon the damages you suffered in your accident. Damages for which financial compensation can be recovered in a claim include:
Medical Bills
The bulk of compensation in a GEICO settlement will typically be for medical bills, both past and future. So, if you’re already facing medical bills due to your accident injuries and will also need future medical treatment which will generate yet more bills, a GEICO settlement can cover both your past and future medical expenses.
Lost Wages
Many people who are injured in accidents will seek compensation from GEICO for the wages they were unable to earn due to their injuries, whether it be because they were hurt too badly to work for a period of time or because they had to take time off from work in order to obtain medical treatment for their injuries.
Loss of Earning Capacity
Sometimes accident victims are left disabled by their injuries and seek compensation from GEICO for the loss or reduction of their earning capacity caused by their disability.
Pain and Suffering
The physical pain and mental suffering caused by injuries sustained in an accident are things that a GEICO settlement can compensate for financially.
Wrongful Death
Sometimes the families of those lost in car accidents will seek financial compensation for wrongful death when an accident is caused by the negligence of someone insured by GEICO. Wrongful death compensation can include compensation for burial costs, funeral costs, the loss of a loved one’s income, love, companionship, household services and more.
Tips to Maximize Your GEICO Settlement
Tips for maximizing your GEICO settlement include:
Be Careful Speaking to Insurance Adjusters
Insurance adjusters will use anything you say against you in order to pay you less money or nothing at all. In fact, they will even try to trick you into saying the wrong things to them so they can lower the value of your claim.
Things you should never talk about with insurance adjusters include:
- Never accept responsibility for accidents or take blame for accidents
- Never tell adjusters anything upfront regarding your medical treatment or diagnosis
- Never give adjusters totals of lost income or medical expenses
- Never tell adjusters about how your life has been impacted by your injuries
However, a better idea than talking to an adjuster and remembering what not to say to them is to not talk to an adjuster at all – rather, let a lawyer do it for you. Insurance adjusters are very good at manipulating injury victims into saying the wrong thing. By hiring a lawyer, you can let your lawyer handle all conversations with the insurance companies for you so you can focus on recovering from your injuries without worrying about incriminating yourself.
Decline Recorded Statements
While claimants often assume they have an obligation to provide recorded statements, they do not.
The insurance company is going to try to trick you into saying the wrong thing while giving a recorded statement, and if you say the wrong thing, it can cause your claim value to instantly plummet. They may even pressure you into giving a recorded statement, insisting you have a legal obligation to do so – it is a lie if they do this.
It’s best to let lawyers handle all conversations with insurance companies for you rather than give a recorded statement which they can use against you to pay you less or nothing at all.
Don’t Accept the First Offer
The first offer for a settlement will usually be extremely low, sometimes half or less than the true value of your claim. Adjusters know that accident victims are often desperate to get paid as quickly as possible, so they offer lowball offers as bait hoping that desperate claimants will accept them for quick, much-needed cash.
You’ll be missing out on a substantial amount of cash by accepting any first settlement offer. The only way you can recover the amount of compensation you deserve is to reject the first offer then threaten litigation.
File a Lawsuit When Necessary
Under California law, when injuries in an accident are caused by negligence, the negligent party (or, often, their insurance company) is legally obligated to pay for the injuries. However, just because this legal obligation exists doesn’t mean an insurance company will abide by it. In fact, they won’t if you can’t file a lawsuit and win over a lowball offer, since litigation is the only way you can force them to pay you what you deserve.
The best way to recover the compensation you deserve from GEICO after being injured in an accident is to hire lawyers who GEICO knows can sue them over a lowball offer and win. Studies have shown that victims of accidents who are injured receive a lot more money for their injuries when they hire lawyers, even after factoring in attorney fees, than when they don’t hire lawyers.
GEICO Settlement Examples
Examples of GEICO settlements reported on the internet include:
- $180,000 for a woman who suffered a Lisfranc fracture to the foot after her vehicle was struck-head on¹
- $170,000 for an accident victim who suffered broken ribs and a broken femur after being struck by a vehicle which ran a broken traffic light¹
- $175,000 for a rear-end accident victim who needed neck surgery¹
How Does GEICO Calculate Pain and Suffering?
No standard formula exists for calculating pain and suffering. However, an adjuster at GEICO may use a method known as the multiplier method. Your total economic damages are multiplied by a specific number under this method. As an example, if you suffered $20,000 in economic damages and the adjuster assigned a multiplier of 2, you could receive $40,000 for your pain and suffering.
When to Hire a Lawyer
If you have been injured in an auto accident that wasn’t your fault, call us today for a free consultation. We can help you recover financial compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering and more, and we won’t charge you any fee until and unless we obtain a recovery for you, meaning you won’t be charged if we don’t win your case.
If you can’t afford to have your accident injuries treated, we can get you to doctors who will treat you on a lien, which means that you will not be charged to have your accident injuries treated until your case is over. Doctors do this for our accident clients since they know we get our clients great results.
We have been representing those injured in accidents since 1990 and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of injury victims. Our experience will allow us to maximize your financial compensation if you’ve been injured in an accident.
Call us today for a free case evaluation.
References
1. Miller & Zois
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.
