Insurance Adjuster Tactics In Arizona Personal Injury Claims

Experienced Arizona Personal Injury Lawyers Discuss How To Deal With An Insurance Company

After many types of accidents, there is a good chance you will be dealing with someone’s insurance company as the other party. An insurance adjuster will be assigned to your claim, and handle most correspondence about your claim in its initial stages and onwards.

The insurance adjuster’s job is to get you to settle for as low of a number as possible. There are several ways in which insurance adjusters commonly accomplish this. If you know what they are, you will be better prepared when dealing with insurance adjusters in your personal injury claim.

Ways Insurance Adjusters Attempt To Get Low Settlements

• Giving The Impression That The Insurance Adjuster Is Working For Your Benefit

Your insurance adjuster will often seem compassionate, or even sympathetic to your injuries. Don’t let this fool you into believing that the adjuster is working as your advocate. It is highly unlikely that any initial offers from your insurance adjuster will be fair. You should consult with your own legal representative to get an idea of your claim’s fair value. This will be your one opportunity to receive compensation for your injuries, so it’s vital that all of your expenses are accounted for, and you reach a settlement amount at least in that vicinity.

• Denying Some Or All Of Your Medical Treatments For Your Personal Injury Case

Your doctor may advise you to use prescriptions or treatments that the other party’s insurance company won’t want to cover. The insurance adjuster assigned to your claim is not your doctor or a medical professional at all. However, adjusters may try to claim that some treatments are unnecessary and unreasonable.

• Assigning You Fault In The Accident

Arizona is a comparative negligence state, which means that you still can be compensated for your injuries from an accident if you were partially at fault. Your award will be deducted by whatever percentage you were at fault in the accident. For example, if your damages from an accident were $100,000, but you were 10% at fault for the accident, you would be able to collect $90,000. Insurance adjusters see this an opportunity to reduce their employer’s payout in a personal injury claim. Your adjuster will be looking for every possible factor that could increase your fault in the accident to reduce your settlement.

• The Insurance Adjuster Makes You Feel Rushed

Your insurance adjuster will likely take efforts to make you feel like it’s “now or never” to settle your claim. Your adjuster may set an arbitrary deadline by which your case must be settled, or you will have to proceed to trial. Of course, this is to get you to settle for less than your claim is worth. Your case could be subject to an exception, but the statute of limitations for most personal injury claims in Arizona is 2 years. You should focus on recovering from your injuries, rather than settling your claim on the insurance company’s timeline.

• Delaying Your Personal Injury Claim

On the other hand, it may serve the insurance company’s interests to draw out your claim as long as possible. Depending on your financial situation, your budget could be tight after an accident, and closing out your settlement could help that. The goal of this strategy is to wait until you are in financial strain so that you will be more willing to accept a low settlement. If your insurance adjuster is employing this tactic, you may want to consider retaining a Tucson personal injury attorney to expedite the process.

• Using Recorded Statements For The Personal Injury Claim

This is one of the methods insurance adjusters will use to put pressure on you in a personal injury settlement situation. Early in the claims process, your adjuster will likely ask you to do a call on a recorded line. The adjuster may also refer to this as giving a formal statement. The adjuster will be looking to extract any evidence that could reduce your claim’s value. The adjuster could be looking for signs that you were partially responsible for the accident, that you aren’t following your doctor’s instructions and aggravating your injuries, and more. You should consult with a Mesa personal injury attorney before participating in a recorded call- better yet, retain an attorney to complete the call for you.

• Convincing You That Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney Is Unnecessary

It’s in the insurance company’s best interests to settle your claim as quickly as possible, for the lowest possible sum. This becomes more difficult when the accident victim retains a personal injury attorney for representation in their claim. Insurance adjusters rely on the fact that most people don’t actually want to pursue a lawsuit after an accident. Additionally, many are hesitant to hire- and pay- an attorney for what seems like a minor accident. However, most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis, so their payment comes out of your final award. A quality Mesa injury attorney may garner you a high enough settlement to pay for her own contingency fee. This also shows the insurance company that you are serious about pursuing your claim.

Our Quality Mesa Personal Injury Attorneys Can Help

These are just some of the several techniques insurance adjusters may use against you in a personal injury claim after an accident. The good news is that if you retain a personal injury attorney, the insurance company must direct all correspondence regarding your claim to your attorney first. This will show that you are confident in the validity of your claim and that you aren’t willing to settle for less than its full value. Your attorney will filter out any statements and actions that the insurance company could use to argue that your claim is unreasonably high. But proceeding with your personal injury claim with experienced and trustworthy representation doesn’t have to break the bank. Therefore, our dedicated Mesa accident lawyers offer high quality personal injury claim representation at a guaranteed 25% contingency fee. When compared to our competitors, who charge up to 33% or more, this can save you thousands. To learn more about how to avoid insurance adjuster manipulation, call or use our online form to schedule your free case evaluation today.

Mesa Injury Lawyer

1731 West Baseline Road Suite #103
Mesa, AZ 85202
Tel: 602-600-6001
Enail: [email protected]
Website: injurylawyersmesa.com