Have you recently been injured in an automobile accident in Clermont, Florida? The Sunshine State has the no-fault automobile insurance rule – which means, you need to file a personal injury claim with your car insurance company. Ideally, your insurer should cover the costs of your medical care and other types of losses. Sadly, that is not always the case.
At MANGAL, PLLC, we have already seen many accident victims who have accepted an offer lower than what they need to cover their losses. It is strongly recommended not to fall victim to such lowball offers. Keep reading to know about some common signs that your insurance company is trying to lowball you.
Why Insurance Companies Lowball Clients
No matter how unfair it may appear, lowball settlement offers are commonplace in personal injury cases, given the sky-high insurance premiums some insurer charge. The reason is simple – these companies always try to restrict their liability. They often take advantage of the fact that the victim may not be completely aware of the full value of their claims and is unlikely to hire a personal injury attorney in Clermont, Florida to get professional assistance. In fact, many personal injury victims do not hire injury lawyers in Florida and eventually accept lowball offers. For this reason, a number of insurance companies continue with the practice of lowballing their clients when it comes to claim settlement.
Signs that Your Insurer Is Lowballing You
While there many signs that your insurance company is trying to lowball you, here are the most common ones:
A Settlement Amount Offered Immediately by Your Insurer:
In general, insurers offer settlements to avoid litigation, where they will likely incur higher costs and may be forced to pay you a higher amount in damages. Insurance companies always try to offer a settlement amount to personal injury sufferers as quickly as possible to lure them into accepting it without understanding, researching, or investigating their case fully. Without proper investigation and research, a claimant will never know how much they should be recompensed. Therefore, if your insurer offers you a settlement instantly, that amount would likely to be much lower than what you truly deserve.
Your Insurance Company Ignores Evidence:
Evidence is a key aspect in finding out the party at fault in an accident and how much compensation the victim deserves. If your insurance company avoids looking into the evidence – including photographs of the accident scene, medical records, and your personal account of what really happened along with other important documents – while trying to prove that they are of no relevance, they are certainly lowballing you.
Your Insurer Denies to Explain Their Calculations:
If your insurance company has a dismissive attitude toward you and denies to explain the basis of calculating their settlement offer, chances are high that your insurer is trying to lowball you. Your insurer should be able to support their settlement offer with figures that must consider your losses and associated expenses in a reasonable manner. Hence, you should never accept an offer that your insurer cannot explain appropriately.
Your Insurers Says Your Injuries Are Not Serious:
Victims who don’t agree to the settlement offer from their insurance company are often told that their injuries are not severe. Insurance companies usually employ different tactics to reject your medical treatment by trying to prove that your treatments were not necessary or that you injuries were pre-existing. Do not fall prey to such tactics as these are deceiving ways to lower the settlement amount and to force you to accept whatever your insurer wants you to accept.
Your Insurance Company Tries to Put Blame on You:
This usually occurs to individuals who pursue the other party involved in the accident for recompense. To avoid paying the right settlement amount, your insurer may try to put the blame on you. They may say that you were partially at fault to lower the compensation amount you should receive, or may attempt to blame you fully for the accident that led to your injuries, to reject your claim altogether. In such a situation, you may require very strong evidence against the other party to prove their fault, in a way that your insurance company would not be able to deny the recompense you deserve.
Your Insurer Is Ignoring You:
If at first glance, you were sharp enough to realize that your insurer was lowballing you and decline their initial settlement offer, you may see that your company will begin ignoring you – your messages, emails, phone calls, etc. They may even claim that they have lost your documents or try other tactics to halt the progress of your personal injury case. In such a situation, their sole objective is to make you feel frustrated. As soon as they realize that you think you have lost your chance, they will contact you again to give you another lowball offer, which you will possibly accept in the state of frustration.
Final Words:
In the event of automobile accident-related injuries, you should always make a stand against lowball offers from insurance companies. To safeguard yourself right from the beginning, consider hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer in Clermont, Florida, soon after the incident or even before speaking with your insurance company. Your injury attorney will help you figure out how much compensation you actually deserve and what to you can do to avoid falling victim to such lowball settlement offers.
