Accidents are pretty common. In fact, it is more common than you might think. Unintentional injuries are the fourth most common cause of death in the US. It accounts for 6.5% of all deaths in the US. Unintentional injuries caused 200,955 deaths in the US in 2021. Auto accidents, poisoning, slips and falls, and construction accidents are the leading causes of unintentional injuries.
Victims of accidents will incur a lot of losses, both financial and non-financial. The good thing is that victims have a way to recover their losses and personal injury law. Personal injury law allows the victim to claim compensation for their losses from the negligent party.
In personal injury cases, you can claim compensation by proving negligence. However, insurance companies will not go down easily. They will try their best to reduce or reject your claim. You will have to negotiate with them to obtain fair compensation. The personal injury claim negotiation process is a long and tiring process that will require the intervention of a lawyer. Lawyers can negotiate and obtain fair compensation.
A personal injury case has many phases. The most important of them is the negotiation phase. In this phase, you will negotiate with the insurance company to obtain fair compensation.
You should never accept an insurance settlement without negotiating, since insurance companies are known for lowballing victims.
The First Offer Will Always Be Low
As said, insurance companies’ goal is either to lower your settlement or reject your claim. One of the strategies they follow to do that is to offer a settlement almost immediately after the accident.
The idea is to make you accept the offer so you cannot file a claim later. Following an accident, you will have many bills to settle, like medical bills, property repair costs, etc. These bills will pressure the victims into accepting the initial offer.
The first settlement will not be fair since even you won’t know the full extent of your injury. The insurance company will only offer compensation for your injuries and property damage. Some injuries may not show symptoms for a long time. Those types of injuries will not be included in the initial offer by insurance companies. Remember, when you get a call from the insurance company immediately after an accident, your claim is worth a lot more than what they are offering.
Include Non-Economic Damages
Insurance companies don’t take the non-economic losses of the victim into account. In some cases, victims sustain more non-economic losses than economic losses. Since non-economic damages are not quantifiable, insurance companies will just try to ignore them.
Having a lawyer on your side can help you to a great extent when calculating non-economic losses. A lawyer knows how to factor in non-economic losses when calculating losses. Without non-economic damages, you will be looking at an unjust compensation figure.
Claiming compensation for the pain and suffering you sustain is crucial. Through negotiation, you can do that. You can argue why you deserve to claim non-economic damages.
At this stage, you can also prove your non-economic losses. Documenting your losses and the recovery process is the best way to prove non-economic losses. Usually, non-economic damages will be three times your economic losses.
Final Thoughts
Insurance companies will not offer fair compensation to the victims. If you have been the victim of an accident, you have to negotiate with the insurance company to get fair compensation. Negotiating with the insurance company is not easy. They are trained to negotiate. You will need the help of an experienced personal injury lawyer to successfully negotiate and make the insurance company agree to a fair settlement. Hiring a lawyer gives you peace of mind and reduces your stress levels.
Blog received on Mail from Andrew.
