No, it’s generally not in your best interests to accept the insurance company’s first settlement offer. You definitely shouldn’t accept an offer until you’ve had time to consult an experienced car accident lawyer in Round Rock.
The insurance company doesn’t want to do what’s best for you. The adjuster wants to pay as little as possible, and that’s often achieved by pressuring claimants to accept offers that are worth considerably less than what they’re really worth.
Instead of rushing the process, it’s best to bring an auto accident attorney into the mix to level the playing field, help you understand what your personal injury case is likely worth, and force the insurance company to make a fair offer that reflects your current expenses, your future losses, and your harder-to-value struggles.
Insurance Companies Intentionally Make Unreasonably Low Settlement Offers
Insurance companies are for-profit companies. Their main goal isn’t to help you get back on your feet after a car accident. Instead, adjusters are paid to protect a company’s bottom line by limiting how much money is awarded when a crash victim pursues a claim.
One way to minimize a claimant’s recovery is by making a quick offer to settle a car accident claim. It’s not uncommon for adjusters to start calling hours after a collision has occurred. When this happens, you need to be hesitant about any potential offers to settle.
Here’s why:
You don’t know the full extent of your physical injuries
It takes time to seek medical care, undergo a thorough medical evaluation, and have crash-related injuries diagnosed. The insurance company wants you to settle before you have all of this information.
Once the severity of your injuries is fully understood, you can anticipate how long it might take for you to recover and what type of treatment(s) you’ll need to get better. These are all things that will play into your claim’s value. If you accept the insurance company’s first settlement offer, there’s a good chance that it won’t reflect your actual medical costs and related expenses, both now and in the future.
You’re under a lot of stress and mounting financial pressure
The insurance company knows how expensive car accidents can be. Medical costs can be extraordinary, even if you’re covered by health insurance, especially if you haven’t yet met your annual deductible or out-of-pocket maximum. If your injuries prevent you from working, a sudden loss of or drop in income can be incredibly stressful.
Adjusters try to use these factors as leverage to convince you that it’s a good idea to accept a settlement right away. The insurer wants to play on your emotions and take advantage of you in a stressful time to protect them, not you.
You don’t know what your personal injury case is worth
In Texas, you’re entitled to pursue compensatory damages for a lot more than your present-day medical bills and lost wages. You can pursue damages for future monetary losses, treatment-related expenses, and harder-to-value pain and suffering.
You simply can’t know what your car accident case is worth until:
- The type and nature of your injuries are established
- You can anticipate how long you’ll be unable to work because of your car accident injuries
- The need for long-term rehabilitation, therapy, or supportive services is known; and
- How the car accident and your resulting injuries will affect your day-to-day quality of life.
It takes time to understand your claim’s potential value. The insurance company wants you to accept a quick offer before you have time to figure it out. The sooner you settle, the more likely it is that you leave well-deserved compensation on the table.
Once You Settle, You Waive the Right to Pursue Additional Compensation
Once you accept a settlement, the insurance company will have to sign a release of liability, in which you’ll agree to waive the right to pursue additional compensation in the future, even if your damages end up far exceeding the amount of money you agreed to take early on.
In Texas, a release of liability doesn’t just apply to the insurance company–it extends to anyone who might be liable for your car accident injuries.
The release is a binding contract, so it’s important to make sure you know what your case is worth and who’s on the hook for damages before taking a settlement or signing anything.
How Do I Know If the Insurance Company’s Settlement Offer Is Fair?
The best way to know if an offer is fair is by knowing what your case is worth. Knowledge is power in car accident settlement negotiations. That’s one of the reasons it’s smart to contact an experienced car accident attorney near you as soon as you can after a crash.
Not only will your car accident lawyer be there to review early settlement offers and encourage the insurance company to handle your claim fairly, but they’ll be able to invest the time, resources, and knowledge needed to really uncover how much money should be awarded to you to make you whole.
At Dow Law Firm, our Round Rock car accident attorneys take a very detailed approach to valuing our clients’ cases:
Economic Damages
First, we evaluate your economic damages, the financial consequences of your car accident, both present and future. This can include things like medical bills for the emergency room, hospitalization, or medication, rehabilitation costs, short-term and long-term losses of income, and a reduction in your earning capacity.
Our motor vehicle accident lawyers will also evaluate damage to your property, including costs needed to replace or repair your vehicle from the crash.
Non-Economic Damages
Next, we’ll consider the harder-to-value struggles you experience because you were involved in a car accident. Things like pain and suffering, emotional distress, physical disfigurement, and chronic pain don’t have a set cost, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a very real and very hard impact on your life.
These are compensable under Texas law, too, and it’s important that your claim’s value captures the extent to which your life has changed for the worse because of the crash.
A settlement offer is fair if it covers your verifiable costs and projected monetary losses in the future, while also including a sum that acknowledges the traumatic experience you’ve had. Ultimately, this is incredibly subjective and varies from case to case.
Hiring an Experienced Car Accident Lawyer Can Help You Recover a Fair Value For Your Claim
Dow Law Firm’s team of Round Rock car accident attorneys knows how to build a claim, back it with strong evidence, and incorporate testimony from expert witnesses to force the kind of recovery you deserve. This takes time, so it’s often important to be patient after a car accident.
While the insurance company’s initial settlement offer might be tempting, taking money today might do more harm than good in the long run.
If you’ve recently been involved in a car accident in Round Rock, TX, don’t hesitate to contact our car accident lawyers at (512) 240-9951 for support and advice. We offer free consultations.