3 Tricks a Car Insurance Company Might Try After Your Crash

 Posted on May 06, 2022 in Car Accident

A car insurance company is first and foremost, a business designed to make money. Earning a profit is their number one goal. Offering you fair and full compensation after one of their customers injures you is contrary to that goal. In nearly all cases, that means they are not going to do it unless someone - usually your lawyer - forces their hand a bit. This is why the other driver’s insurance company is going to be very eager to talk to you as soon as possible after the accident. You may not even be home from the hospital when you start getting phone calls. Generally, their goal is to get to you before you can get to a lawyer. They know they are more likely to “win” when they deal with an unrepresented party. This means that contacting an experienced attorney is rather urgent when you have been hurt in a car accident. Insurance representatives can be very convincing.

What Tactics Might Insurance Companies Use When Dealing With an Unrepresented Party?

Ideally, you should avoid talking to the other driver’s insurance company other than to give them your lawyer’s contact information. They may attempt to cheat you out of a fair settlement using tricks like:

• High-sounding offer - The dollar amount of their initial offer might sound good, but that is usually only because you have not been able to do the math yet. $50,000 might sound great until you find out that your hospital bill alone is $35,000, physical therapy could be another $5,000 and you are going to lose three months' worth of wages while you recover. Also, your vehicle is still totaled. Now that offer does not seem nearly as good.
• Disarming friendliness - The first representative who calls you about a potential settlement is not going to try launching into adversarial negotiations. They are going to ask you how you are feeling and doing as if that is their main concern. You may be taken aback by how kind and caring the representative seems. This is generally just a ploy to get you to let your guard down so that you are more likely to trust them.
• Accusations - On the other hand, you should also not be surprised if it sounds like they believe the accident was your fault. No matter how obvious it may seem that the other driver was at fault, their insurance company may be desperate to pass all or some of the blame onto you. They may even imply that they have some type of “evidence” that you did something to cause the crash.

Even if you are normally a shrewd business person, you are not fully yourself when you are injured and in pain. It is much fairer to let an attorney take on the insurance company for you.

Call a Larimer County Car Accident Attorney

Hoggatt Law Office, P.C. has been representing injured car crash victims for far too long to fall for the tricks insurance companies use. Our experienced Fort Collins car accident lawyers are up to the task of fighting for fair settlements from unscrupulous insurance companies. Contact us at 970-225-2190 for a free consultation.

Source:

https://www.caranddriver.com/car-insurance/a36411402/after-an-accident-how-to-deal-with-insurance/