After a car accident, what’s next? Pursue adequate compensation for your damages, right? But like you, the at-fault driver insurance company also has an objective. And unfortunately, it doesn’t involve paying you exactly what you deserve.
Insurance companies, like other for-profit businesses, want to make profits. So they adopt different tactics to minimize injury claims, reducing the amount they pay in damages.
Understanding these tactics can help you avoid pitfalls, ensuring that you receive fair compensation that covers your damages.
How Injury Claims Work
For there to be an injury claim, there has to be an accident. Say someone’s car got hit by another vehicle while recklessly changing lanes, which led to the individual getting injured. The police will need to be notified, as will the insurance companies.
Next, the injured party visits a hospital for treatment and obtains a medical record as proof of the injury sustained. After that, they file a claim via their lawyer to the insurance company alongside necessary reports, records, and evidence.
The insurance companies conduct an investigation and then calculate the damage by analyzing medical bills, lost income, damage to the vehicle, etc. Finally, they offer a payment.
Having understood how injury claims work, here are some tricks insurance companies use to reduce payouts.
1. They Try to Confuse You
Ever read an insurance claim form or policy terms? They are usually filled with complex terminology and complicated processes that a layman would struggle to understand.
Insurance companies sometimes leverage this complexity to create confusion. The result? It becomes difficult to fully understand your rights or the real worth of your claim. On top of that, insurers might overwhelm you with paperwork and request unnecessary details to coerce you into accepting a lower offer.
Your best move here is to involve a reputable car accident attorney. They have first-hand experience in dealing with insurance companies and can sniff out their shenanigans from a mile away. The best part? They can also help you negotiate a fair settlement!
2. Render the Injury Claim Void
This one might sound ridiculous. But sometimes, insurance companies may try to dispute your claim even if your injury serves as proof.
They may even argue that you have no injuries or that your claim isn’t valid. For instance, they may say that if you have no police report, there is no proof that you were in a car accident.
Same with medical records.
Insurance companies might argue that the absence of necessary medical records means you weren’t injured. This is why you need to ensure that all required evidence is available. Because without concrete evidence like police reports and medical records, insurance companies aren’t obligated to compensate your claim.
3. Adopting Delay Tactics
It takes around 15-30 days to settle simple auto claims in the United States. If lucky, it could take a few weeks or days. However, to lower the settlement amount, insurance companies may deliberately delay claims. Delays can test claimant’s patients, stretching them financially. Or worse, prevent litigation.
Did you know that delay is a profit strategy for insurance companies? The longer claims are delayed, the more money insurance companies make through interest on the money held. And of course, the claimant is more likely to accept lower settlements.
So how do you protect yourself? First, ensure that you know your state’s payment laws. The laws are there to ensure insurers process claims within specific timeframes. Additionally, hire an auto accident lawyer if you are dealing with large claims.
4. Blame Pre-Existing Conditions
Say you fractured a bone in a car accident involving a speeding vehicle. To reduce your injury claim, insurers may argue that the injury wasn’t a result of the crash. They may claim that it was due to a slip and fall accident at work or somewhere else.
Should the insurance company be able to prove that your injuries weren’t caused by the accident, they could deny the claim. Or reduce the compensation.
In that case, you may have to pay for the medical expenses out of pocket or via your health insurance (if you have one). To prevent this from happening, you need to hire a competent car accident lawyer to challenge the insurance company’s claims.
5. Discourage You from Hiring a Lawyer
Insurance companies may discourage you from hiring a lawyer after a car accident, assuring you of how easy the claim process is.
They do this not because they care about your pocket. Or because the claim process is indeed easy, but to increase their chances of reducing the payout.
Think about it. With a car accident lawyer by your side, do you think it’ll be easy for insurance companies to pull a fast one on you? Not hiring a lawyer allows the insurance company to control the negotiation.
Final Thoughts
Insurance companies care about one thing: Protecting their bottom line. So they’ll do what’s necessary to achieve that, even if it means tricking you into believing that you don’t need a lawyer or employing delay tactics to frustrate you into accepting lower offers.First step to protecting yourself? Understanding their tactics. The second step? Hiring a Columbus auto accident lawyer whenever you think something is suspicious. Yes, it’ll cost you some money. But it’ll ensure that you are fully compensated for damages incurred in the accident.
