If you’ve recently been in an accident involving a vehicle insured by the major insurance company Progressive, you may be wondering what the average Progressive settlement payout is.
The size of your settlement after a car accident will depend on the extent of your injury. Settlements can range from a couple thousand dollars to millions of dollars. Settlements can include compensation for things like medical bills, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, pain, suffering and more.
According to Forbes, the average settlements in terms of personal injury claims relating to car accidents are $20,000 to $25,000.
However, your personal injury claim could be worth much more than that depending upon the circumstances of your accident and injuries.
Will Progressive Give Me a Reasonable Settlement Offer?
If you are not represented by a personal injury lawyer, Progressive insurance will not give you a reasonable settlement offer. They will try to minimize your damages, undervalue your case and make you feel pressured to settle before you’ve properly evaluated the value of your case.
The reason why this auto insurance company will do this is because they only have to pay you what you’re actually entitled to if you have a lawyer.
In California, those who injure others via negligence have a legal obligation to pay for any injuries caused. In practice, what this typically means is that the negligent party’s insurance company is required to pay for the injured party’s medical expenses, lost wages, etc. up to the policy limits.
However, failure to live up to this obligation isn’t something that’s enforced via criminal law. It is instead enforced via civil law. This means that if an insurance company is refusing to pay you what you’re entitled to after an accident, the only way you can make them is to sue them and win.
Progressive is smart enough to know that you can’t sue them and win without a lawyer. They have the money to pay for lawyers to defend them, after all. So, if you don’t have a lawyer representing you, Progressive is just going to low ball you on their offer, daring you to sue them over it. They will do this because they won’t respect your ability to sue them over a low ball offer and win the lawsuit.
How Progressive Compares to Other Insurance Companies
In our experience, Progressive car accident claims are some of the hardest claims to deal with. We believe they’re one of the worst insurers to deal with regarding a personal injury claim.
The company has been very cheap as of late. They are now just as cheap if not cheaper than Allstate, which has traditionally been the worst insurance company for injured car accident victims to deal with.
Progressive is an insurer who is likely to make you have to file an injury lawsuit.
However, lawsuits almost always soften Progressive’s resolve. There is a long history of fair Progressive car accident settlements occurring after lawsuits are filed. The company lets very few cases end up going to trial.
If you’ve been in an accident which was the fault of a driver without insurance, was the result of a hit and run, or resulted in damages which exceed the policy limits of the at-fault driver, you might need to submit an injury claim through your own Progressive policy. When this occurs, the company is a bit fairer to policyholders. However, Progressive still tends to be unreasonable here, and it’s difficult to know what you can expect regarding uninsured motorist coverage claims with them.
Progressive’s First Settlement Offer: What to Expect
Progressive insurance claims see first settlement offers which are smaller than one would expect from an average insurer. Adjusters for Progressive are not as reasonable as most insurance adjusters – especially when they notice you’re not represented by an attorney.
Progressive, in general, writes smaller insurance policies for policyholders and initially offers smaller settlements than other insurers.
Because you can pretty much always expect a small initial offer when trying to agree upon a settlement with Progressive, this suggests that it is the company’s strategy to present small initial offers. This may be explained by their typically small policies – adjusters with the company are willing to take risks on low ball offers when they know that low policy limits exist should the low balling strategy backfire.
It’s important that you not take the first offer, even if you feel pressured by your insurance claims adjuster to do so.
By having one of our lawyers by your side, you can avoid being low-balled and we can fight to maximize your settlement. Call a car accident lawyer at our firm today for a free consultation so we can help you recover the money you deserve.
How Progressive Determines Fault in an Auto Accident
When you file a Progressive insurance claim, the company will often quickly conclude that you are partially or fully responsible for your accident. Our attorneys, when handling litigation against Progressive, have seen some fairly far-fetched interpretations of facts leading to conclusions that it was our clients who were at fault.
The company will investigate any relevant evidence, like witness statements, police reports and video evidence, to discover a path they can exploit to deny any responsibility.
When it’s impossible for them to deny their client is at fault, they will usually quickly look for ways in order to minimize your damages and injuries. They’re notorious for reducing the compensation they’ll offer for medical expenses, making claims that healthcare providers charged excessively. They’ll even sometimes demand that you send them your medical records so they can look for evidence they can use to pay you less. If they ask you this, tell them to talk to your lawyer about it.
Examples of Progressive Bodily Injury Settlement Payouts
Progressive Rear-End Settlement: $300,000¹
This case involved a plaintiff who got rear-ended by an uninsured driver, suffering spine, back, shoulder, neck and head injuries during the collision. The driver filed a claim with her Progressive uninsured motorist coverage. The company refused to pay the plaintiff, who sued and received a $300,000 verdict.
Progressive T-Boned Settlement: $150,000²
This case involved a plaintiff riding in an Uber’s back seat when the vehicle he was in was T-boned.
The case was quite valuable because:
- The plaintiff was only 21
- The plaintiff lacked pre-existing conditions
- The accident involved a severe impact
- Doctors believed the patient had a bulging neck disc caused by the accident
Progressive attempted to devalue the plaintiff’s case by pointing out that:
- The plaintiff only had two steroid injections done in the spine very early on after the accident, never having another injection. The company argued that this meant the plaintiff was fixed by the injections, so damages for future pain and future suffering weren’t needed.
- The plaintiff suffered a bulging, not herniated disc.
- Treatment gaps existed for the plaintiff – this case was long and took years to complete).
Progressive was presented with a $25,000 policy limits demand. They presented a $5,000 counteroffer.
Negotiations took place and Progressive agreed upon a $25,000.
Later on, a $125,000 settlement was reached with Uber’s UIM policy, bringing the total settlement to $150,000.
Tips to Maximize Your Progressive Bodily Injury Settlement
If you are trying to recover compensation for your injuries from Progressive, there are a few things you can do to maximize your settlement.
Never Give a Recorded Statement
One of the first things Progressive will probably do after your accident is contact you and try to get you to give them a recorded statement. Don’t do it. Tell them to talk to your lawyer instead.
The reason why is insurance companies like Progressive train their adjusters to trick injury victims into saying the wrong things while being recorded. They’ll try to manipulate you into admitting fault for your accident or admitting that your injuries aren’t as severe as you’re claiming, and they are so good at manipulating people that you can fall for their tricks even if you’re aware they’re trying them on you. The tiniest little thing you say wrong can cause the value of your claim to massively and instantly plummet.
Don’t Accept Their First Offer
Progressive will try to low-ball you with their first offer. Their adjusters may pressure you to accept the first offer you’re given, but it’s important to hold out.
Adjusters know that many people who are injured in accidents are desperate for money. They know accident victims are often unable to work due to their injuries and thus unable to pay their medical bills, so they’re susceptible to pressure tactics. Adjusters will try to prey on your desperation after an accident.
The best thing you can do in this situation is to call a lawyer, as insurance companies are far more willing to pay accident victims what they’re entitled to when accident victims have lawyers.
Call a Lawyer
There are many reasons it’s important to call a lawyer if you’ve been injured in an accident which wasn’t your fault:
- Insurance companies won’t be willing to pay you what you deserve unless they know you can sue them and win
- You need someone to talk to insurance companies for you so you don’t have to worry about incriminating yourself when talking to them
- Experienced personal injury lawyers know how to deal with all of the tricks insurance companies use to try to minimize or eliminate their financial liability
- A law firm can handle the entire claims process for you so all you need to do is focus on recovering from your injuries
- A lawyer can help you maximize your settlement
How Long Does It Take For Progressive to Send a Check for Your Settlement?
It will vary how long it will take for you to receive a settlement check after your accident. The amount of time it will take will depend upon your accident’s individual circumstances as well as factors such as property damage and injury severity, state laws, if you’re represented by a lawyer, and how quickly your claim was filed. You could also end up receiving separate payouts at separate times for every coverage type applying to your claim. As an example, you could receive a payment for rental car reimbursement prior to receiving an injury claim settlement check.
Hiring a lawyer may reduce how long it takes to receive a check as well as reduce your stress during the claims process.
When to Initiate a Progressive Lawsuit
If you have been injured in an accident which wasn’t your fault and the at-fault driver is represented by Progressive, call us today for a free case evaluation. We can handle every step of the legal process for you to minimize your stress and help maximize your recovery.
We represent those injured in accidents against Progressive on a contingency fee basis, meaning we don’t charge any fee until and unless we obtain a recovery. Our only fee to represent you against Progressive will be a percentage of any financial compensation we recover – no upfront or out-of-pocket fees will be charged.
If you can’t afford to get your accident injuries treated, we can get you to doctors who will treat your accident injuries without charging you until your case is over. The reason doctors are willing to do this for our accident clients is because of our reputation for success. Doctors know that when clients hire Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers, they get great results.
Our firm has been representing accident victims against Progressive and other insurance companies since 1990 and has recovered over $750,000,000 for our clients. Our vast experience in handling accident injury insurance claims means we can maximize your financial recovery.
Call us today for a free consultation.
References
1. Miller & Zois
2. Denmon Pearlman Law
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.
