​Should I Take the First Offer of a Car Accident Settlement?

No. Never take the first offer of a car accident settlement certainly not without discussing it with a car accident lawyer.

The aftermath of a car accident is a stressful time. Crash victims may face severe financial strain from medical costs and missing work. You may feel tempted to settle your car accident dispute quickly to pay your bills.

Even though that’s an understandable temptation, it’s never a good idea to take the first offer of a car accident settlement. The first offer from an insurance company is rarely the best, especially if the insurer makes the offer to you directly. An experienced car accident attorney can almost always negotiate better compensation than the insurance company’s first offers.

Insurance companies love to get car crash victims on the phone soon after accidents, before they have had the chance to retain legal counsel, because insurers know that’s when they can convince people to accept lackluster settlement offers. No matter how big a settlement offer may sound, chances are that offer contains much less than the true value of your claim. You want a car accident attorney capable of negotiating a much more fair and full amount of financial compensation to cover all of your past, present, and future expenses relating to your car accident damages.

Here’s What You Should Know About Dealing With Insurance Companies After a Car Accident

Insurance adjusters are trained negotiators.

Thousands of people get into car accidents every day. In almost every instance, an insurance policy will pay for at least some of the damage an accident causes. Unlike you, the typical insurance adjuster has worked on thousands and thousands of claims and settlements.

Insurance companies are businesses that worry about their bottom lines more than your well-being. They have a financial incentive to pay you as little as possible to resolve your claim rather than taking care of you. The claims adjuster for an insurance company will conduct their own investigation into your crash and will try to find as many reasons as they can to deny your claim or reasons to reduce compensation when they cannot outright deny the claim.

In other words, insurance adjusters have the upper hand in negotiating a car accident settlement directly with an accident victim. That’s one of the reasons why hiring an attorney after a crash is so important. Lawyers also negotiate claims settlements every day. Entrusting your claim to a skilled lawyer levels the playing field between you and the insurance company, giving you a fair shot at getting the compensation you deserve.

Someone else’s insurance company has little reason to treat you fairly.

Your own auto insurance company owes you some contractual and statutory duties. You’re their customer, so they have obligations to review and pay your claim promptly in most cases.

However, someone else’s insurance company does not have the same legal relationship with you. It may not approach your potential claim against its policyholder with any desire to treat you fairly. That insurance company will likely look for every possible excuse not to pay you.

While it may be possible that another party’s insurance company will express some remorse and act as though they will be on your side when they first call you, do not fall for this trick. Many agents for insurance companies are deceitful in how they present themselves as allies when they are going to be anything but that. In the end, all insurance company operatives are ultimately accountable to their employers and aim to pay as little as possible to resolve every claim.

An insurance adjuster can use anything you say against you.

There’s a reason insurance adjusters ask so many questions: they hope you will slip up and give an answer that lets them off the hook for paying your damages.

You may have a contractual obligation to speak with your own insurance company, but you rarely have any duty to speak with, much less give a recorded statement to, someone else’s. Expect insurance companies representing the party at fault for your car accident to hound you for a recorded interview, and prepare to tell them politely but firmly that they should contact your car accident lawyer.

And, remember that whatever you say to someone else’s insurance company can be used against you. Use extreme caution at all times. If possible, let your lawyer handle all communications with someone else’s insurance company so that you stay protected from their aggressive tactics.

When an insurance company is insisting that you must engage in a recorded conversation, do not fall for it. Inform them that you will have your car accident attorney call them back

Never release any medical information to an insurance adjuster without the guidance of a lawyer because insurance companies always look for pre-existing conditions or other older injuries they can use as excuses for reducing your settlement value.

You may not have to take your car to the auto shop the insurance company recommends.

Before asking your auto insurer to pay for repairs for your car, read through your policy to understand whether you have to take the car to a shop of their choosing or one that they approve. Ask a lawyer for help figuring this out, if need be.

If someone else’s insurance will pay for your repairs, then it’s unlikely you have any duty to take your car to a specific shop they recommend, and it’s probably not a good idea to agree to do so. Insurers sometimes refer work to mechanics who do the minimum repair to get your car back on the road rather than a thorough repair job.

An experienced car accident lawyer can help you push back against an insurance company that demands you take your damaged vehicle to a shop of its choosing.

The First Settlement Offer: What to Understand

Here’s the thing: The first settlement offer you get from an at-fault party’s insurer is all but guaranteed to pay far less money than you need and deserve. It will also rarely represent that insurance company’s last or best offer. Knowing this, here is a simple tip for how to respond.

Don’t.

Instead, if a representative of the at-fault party’s insurance company contacts you directly, politely refer them to your car accident attorney. If you don’t have an attorney yet, take their name and contact information and tell them you will have a lawyer get back to them immediately. Then, contact a skilled attorney who can take the negotiation from there and get you the money you deserve.

Many people are taken aback by how generous they feel the initial settlement offers are, but you need to account for all of your damages, not just now but months from now as well. The danger of accepting any settlement offer is that you will close your case and be unable to pursue any further compensation down the line if you realize later that you need more money.

Many insurance companies quickly make initial offers because they know that you probably have no idea exactly how much your total damages from your case will add up to. You may have no idea about your future medical costs, especially if you must work with several medical providers, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, surgeons, or follow-ups with other specialists for specific injuries.

How Insurance Companies Determine the First Settlement Offer to Make After a Car Accident?

Here is how adjusters for the at-fault party’s insurance company usually come up with the first settlement offer you receive.

Step one: Getting a story from their policyholder (the at-fault party).

The adjuster will usually first talk to the at-fault party and policyholder. The story the party gives may not reflect reality, but if it’s helpful to the insurance company, that will be the version of events they stick with until proven otherwise.

In other words, from the get-go, the at-fault party’s insurance company will often take the view that it owes you nothing. Even when another driver was clearly at fault for causing a motor vehicle accident, you need to know that the other driver will want to limit their liability to keep their insurance rates low.

Step two: Investigating the claimant (you).

Next, the at-fault party’s insurer will want to know all about you, but not in a good way.

Insurers, for instance, search databases to determine whether claimants have filed car accident claims in the past in hopes of finding evidence of a pre-existing condition that they can blame for your injuries. Adjusters will also search claimants on the web. They particularly focus on social media and any posts they can spin to give the impression that you are doing fine despite the accident.

For this reason, avoid posting anything on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media website. While many people see no harm in telling their friends and family about crashes they were in, insurers can easily twist social media posts against you.

Everything the insurer does aims to undermine the value or viability of your claim. If you seek compensation for pain and suffering and mental anguish, for example, an adjuster will be thrilled to find an Instagram photo of you out enjoying dinner with friends or a TikTok of you dancing despite your injuries. This evidence does not invalidate your claim for damages, but it will give the insurance adjuster and defense lawyers an opening to argue it does.

Step 3: Requesting documentation regarding the claim.

Insurance adjusters commonly rely on documentation of injuries to help them calculate potential damages.

An insurance adjuster may, for example, contact your car accident injury lawyer to request copies of:

• Medical records and bills
• Proof of earnings
• Proof of property damage
• Tax returns

Within reason, you may want to provide this information, but a lawyer can advise you on whether and when to do so.

You need to further understand that your current medical bills might not accurately reflect your total medical costs because you may require many rounds of further care that can only add to your medical bills. Remember that every complication that arises with your health will add to your medical expenses.

Your Demand Letter

Either before or after you receive the first offer from the at-fault party’s insurance company, your lawyer can send a demand letter. A demand letter details the compensation you want from the at-fault party, which the insurance company will typically pay on that party’s behalf.

Most demand letters include:

• A description of the car accident and an explanation of how the insurance company’s covered driver caused the crash.
• A summary of all your medical treatment, including costs.
• An itemized list of all other economic losses the accident caused (car repairs, lost wages, etc.).
• A list of ways the accident impacted your life non-financially (mental anguish, pain, suffering, etc.).
• The amount of money you demand in compensation for your injuries and losses.

Your demand letter, in other words, establishes your position on how much the insurance company for the at-fault party should pay you. It may lead to settlement negotiations between your lawyer and the insurer. Or, the insurer may take a harder line and dismiss your demand, essentially inviting you to file a lawsuit for damages against its policyholder to force the issue.

Who Decides Whether to Settle?

It’s your decision whether, when, and for how much to settle your car accident claim. Your lawyer negotiates on your behalf and advises you about the strengths and weaknesses of any offer you receive, but the final choice is always yours.

The decision to settle is always yours to make, and an attorney can only advise you on when a settlement may be best to accept. If you decide that no settlement offer will satisfy you, you may want to move toward a trial.

Tips for Getting the Best Possible Settlement Offer After a Car Accident

Contact an experienced car accident lawyer right away.

A lawyer knows how to negotiate with an insurance company to get you the maximum settlement possible. A lawyer can also advise you about how much money you should receive and whether to accept or reject settlement offers.

The sooner you contact a lawyer after getting hurt in an accident, the better the job the lawyer can do for you. Get an attorney involved as soon as possible after an accident because the lawyer might conduct an independent investigation into the crash. The quicker you contact them, the sooner they can secure evidence before it disappears.

Give your attorney all the evidence and documentation you have.

Sometimes, it’s difficult (or impossible) for people to collect evidence after a car accident. That’s okay! Car accident lawyers have lots of experience investigating crashes and gathering evidence.

Still, if you can, take care to save everything in your possession related to the accident and your injuries. Keep documents like medical records, receipts for prescriptions, and insurance statements. Keep damaged items of personal property that you had with you when the crash happened. Keep texts, emails, photos, and videos. You never know what evidence might make your case unbeatable.

Seek appropriate health care and follow doctor’s orders.

Going to the doctor after any car accident, even one you think did not injure you, protects your health and well-being. Failure to seek medical attention often translates to an insurance company believing you suffered no personal harm whatsoever. This gives them less reason to offer any settlement except for possible property damage.

It also makes a favorable settlement of your claim more likely. Seeking medical care generates medical records, which you will need to prove the nature and extent of your injuries. Following your doctor’s advice protects you against arguments by insurance adjusters who claim that you made your injuries worse.

You cannot hope to obtain a top-dollar settlement or judgment without caring for yourself physically and emotionally. Talk to your lawyer if you need help finding appropriate, affordable care.

Think in terms of future costs.

Car accident victims frequently express surprise at how much money their lawyer thinks they should receive. The source of that surprise, usually, is their failure to consider the impact of future costs on the size of their claim.

The law entitles car accident victims to compensation not just for the expenses they have already incurred but also for payment of the future physical, emotional, and financial costs they can reasonably expect to incur because of the accident and their injuries.

For example, an accident that leaves a crash victim unable to return to a high-paying job may entitle the victim to receive compensation for lost earning capacity. Similarly, a crash victim can seek payment for the expected costs of treating secondary conditions reasonably related to their primary injury, such as when someone suffers a spinal cord injury that, over time, leads to paralysis-related health complications.

Be as patient as possible.

Car accident victims often face financial strain. It’s difficult to wait for payment when medical bills keep piling up and injuries keep you out of work.

Still, achieving a favorable settlement sometimes depends on getting the timing right. Your lawyer may advise waiting to engage in serious settlement negotiations, for instance, until you have a clearer picture of your medical prognosis and future medical needs. The timing of a settlement can also depend on finding the moment when the at-fault party and/or its insurer feels the most pressure to resolve a case.

It’s not always possible to stay patient. Some car accident victims may even agree to take a settlement for less than they know they deserve, simply to get paid quickly. However, whenever possible, giving your lawyer the time to find the right moment to settle can make a significant difference in the outcome of your claim.

Settlement negotiations can span several months in many cases, but insurance companies will usually begin to relent in their demands because the longer the negotiations continue without a resolution only means the closer a case gets to a trial. Insurers rarely want cases to go to trial because trial costs are expensive, and a jury might make an insurance company pay for even more than the settlement offer they made.

Did Someone Offer You a Settlement? Contact a Car Accident Lawyer Right Away.

Do not make the mistake of trying to engage with someone else’s insurance company directly. Instead, contact a skilled car accident lawyer who knows how to negotiate the best possible settlement on your behalf.

A car accident attorney has the motivation to work as hard for you as possible to recover the maximum amount because the lawyer is only getting paid based on the amount you recover.

It does not cost you anything upfront to hire an attorney because they will handle your case on a contingency fee basis, meaning that if they do not recover anything for you, you will not pay them anything.