Filing an insurance claim is a headache. Your case will be assigned to a claims adjuster, who will be your contact. This person will demand information from you. They might also disappear and not respond to phone calls.
Larson & Gallivan Law can represent accident victims in an injury claim. We have seen common underhanded insurance tactics, which are designed to frustrate injured victims. Call our office to speak with aVermont personal injury lawyer. We can move quickly to demand fair compensation and respect.
Delaying Investigation
A liability insurer must pay compensation if their insured is liable for an accident. To determine liability, the insurance company must perform an investigation. This means looking at the police report, talking to witnesses, and possibly inspecting the vehicles.
An investigation should not take months, but many of our clients end up waiting that long. Weeks roll by and they never hear from the claims adjuster.
In fact, delaying an investigation is a well-worn insurance adjuster tactic. They delay for a reason: to put pressure on injured victims.
Insurance adjusters know that injured victims need a settlement, and quickly. Our clients have all sorts of bills to pay: medical bills, rent, mortgage, groceries, and other expenses. Many injured victims are experiencing such extreme pain they cannot go into work. So they stagger beneath bills while all income has stopped coming in the door.
Insurance companies hope you might be so desperate that you grab the first offer.
We respond by reminding insurance adjusters of their duty to handle a claim in a reasonable fashion. We can put pressure on them and even threaten to sue for unnecessarily delaying a claim.
Denying Liability for No Good Reason
Another tactic is to simply deny that their insured is liable for the accident. After reviewing the evidence, they will claim you are at least partially to blame.
This is another common tactic. As with delaying an investigation, claims adjusters are pressuring you to accept a small settlement.
Liability disputes delay many cases. Under Vermont law, liability can be shared between two or more parties. In a two-vehicle car accident, either driver could have liability, or it might be shared between the two. Under Vermont law, however, you can lose the ability to seek compensation altogether if you are 51% responsible for the accident.
AtLarson & Gallivan Law, we fight back thanks to our detailed approach to cases. We understand all evidence top to bottom. We know what happened and can point to evidence backing up our claim that our client is not to blame.
Forcing an Injured Victim to File a Lawsuit
This is another common tactic. Insurance companies are confident that the average person cannot litigate their personal injury claim in court. And that’s a good bet. It takes time and energy to learn Vermont personal injury law, the rules of evidence, and civil procedure. Lawyers go to school for three years to learn personal injury law. The average person cannot learn as effectively on their own.
What’s more, there are important deadlines in personal injury cases. You only get three years to file a lawsuit. Go past this deadline, even by a day accidentally, and you will lose the ability to sue. Someone who is not represented by a lawyer can easily make that mistake by losing sight of deadlines.
You should hire a personal injury lawyer after any accident. A lawyer knows how to litigate a claim and where to file a lawsuit. We know what deadlines apply and can get a case filed under the deadline to protect your rights.
What’s more, we are not afraid to litigate a claim. In fact, we have won many personal injury cases. We are even willing to present your case to a jury, if a fair settlement cannot be reached.
When insurance companies see us on the other side of the courtroom, they know their tricks will be ineffective. They know we can push to increase the compensation our clients receive.
Offering Small Settlements
Insurance companies enjoy fat profits because they work overtime to limit what they pay to injured claimants. Even when someone is struggling with major injuries, they might receive a settlement offer for only a few thousand dollars.
We will review any proposal and immediately reject a settlement if we think you can get more. Then we negotiate with the other side to bump up the compensation on offer. We will support our counteroffer with facts which show the severity of your injuries.
We also minimize any contributory negligence. We don’t let insurers blame our clients without solid evidence to back up their allegations. By minimizing your own share of fault, we can increase the amount you take home.
Tricking You Into Admitting Fault or Minimizing Your Injuries
Insurance companies might quickly reach out after an accident to discuss what happened or the full extent of your injuries. This might seem like a nice gesture, but their motivations are usually suspect.
Often, insurance adjusters hope that you admit fault for the crash or minimize the severity of your pain or disabilities. Because they are recording these conversations, they might use your statements later against you. For example, you might admit you were tired the day you got into a car accident. The insurer claims this is an “admission” that you were fatigued while driving home. Consequently, they blame you for contributing to the accident.
If hired, we can listen in on any question-and-answer session with claims adjusters. We can also clarify if you say something that is not entirely accurate.
Schedule Your Free Consultation Today
Contact our firm to speak with a Vermont personal injury lawyer about your accident. Our firm has tackled many different types of personal injury cases, including car accidents, trip and falls, truck accidents, and more. You can be sure a confident, experienced legal team will represent you in negotiations with any insurance company or defendant. Call to speak with us about your accident in a free, no obligation consultation.
