After a car accident, you may be thinking that you can handle negotiations with the other side’s insurance company all by yourself. You might think of yourself as a good negotiator, so why do you need an attorney in the first place? How hard can it really be?
The thing is, dealing with insurance companies, especially after a car accident, can be a pretty complicated process. It’s not as easy as just picking up the phone and talking with the insurance adjuster.
At our office, we deal with insurance companies every day and have been doing so for over 40 years. We know the ins-and-outs of the system and how to negotiate with the insurance adjusters to maximize your recovery.
Here are a few reasons why you should avoid negotiating with the insurance companies yourself after a Florida car accident.
You don’t want to say anything that can harm your case
If you’ve ever seen a police show on television, then you’ve definitely watched one of those scenes where a police officer arrests a suspect and says to them that “anything you say can and will be used against you.” Well, there’s a somewhat similar concept at play when you are talking with insurance companies.
When you call the insurance company to talk about your case, oftentimes those calls are recorded. And even when the call is not recorded, if you say something to the adjuster that could be harmful to your case, the adjuster is almost certainly going to put a note into the file about what you said. Once that happens, you are basically stuck with your statement. And if you said something that’s harmful to your case, the adjuster will use that against you when valuing the case and negotiating with you. You really can sink your case just by saying the wrong thing to the adjuster.
You don’t know what will hurt your case
It doesn’t matter how smart you are. The simple truth is, if you don’t handle car accident cases on a regular basis, you don’t necessarily know what is good and what is bad for your case. It sounds a little strange, but we can’t begin to tell you how many times a client has told us something about their case and thought it was great and helpful when, in reality, it was actually a damaging fact that could have significantly hurt the case. Sometimes, the things you think are positive aspects of your case are, instead, really negative facts that can minimize your financial recovery. In many instances, you won’t know what you should and shouldn’t say to the insurance adjuster. For that reason alone, it makes sense to leave it to an attorney to negotiate your case after a Broward car accident.
Delay, delay, delay and hope you go away
A lot of times, when an insurance adjuster knows that a person is not represented by an attorney, the adjuster drags things out as long as possible. They may not return your phone calls or answer your emails. The idea for them is to let the case sit around for as long as possible, and maybe you’ll get frustrated and just let the case go without following up. This is a common tactic that people who represent themselves frequently encounter when trying to negotiate with the insurance company without an attorney.
You may inadvertently set the parameters for negotiating too low
There is a fairly good chance that you don’t know what your case is worth. This can cause a big problem because, once you start negotiating with the insurance adjuster, you may start out asking for too little and set the bar too low. After that happens, even if you get a lawyer, the lawyer may not be able to go back to the drawing board and start asking for even more money than what you initially asked for. The adjuster might say that you initially wanted a certain (very low) amount of money to settle the case, and now they aren’t willing to even consider offering more than that. At that point, you are stuck filing a lawsuit on a case that otherwise might have been able to be resolved sooner if you had gotten an attorney involved from the beginning.
If you hire an experienced personal injury lawyer from the outset, that lawyer usually has a good idea of what your case is worth and what to ask for from the insurance company. That often results in you getting better offers from the adjuster than if you had started the negotiations by yourself.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Broward County or anywhere else in Florida, call our office today for a free consultation
Our office has handled thousands of car accident cases over the last 40 years. Our attorneys are highly experienced in negotiating with insurance adjusters. We negotiate with insurance companies on a daily basis for our clients. After your car accident, let the attorneys handle the communications with the insurance company. Call our office today at (954) 833-1440 for a free consultation.