It’s usually a bad idea to accept an insurance company’s first offer after a serious accident. Insurers often send quick settlement offers to catch you when you’re vulnerable and before you get the chance to consult with a lawyer. A quick settlement offer may not cover all of your medical bills and those that are still on the way.

You may not even have a good idea of how much your doctor bills will total and how much work you’ll miss. It’s why an insurance adjuster might call you with a hasty deal. You might be desperate enough to accept any offer, well before the true damage of an accident has been calculated.  If you accept the first amount you are presented with, there’s a good chance you end up paying for some of your recovery bills yourself.

What to Make Sure Isn’t Left Out of a Settlement Offer

If your accident only involves very minor injuries and/or property damage, you may not need to be too suspicious of a first settlement offer. If a car accident settlement covers all of your emergency room bills and car body repairs, it may be okay to accept the settlement check. The car repair and reimbursement process for property damage-only wrecks has become pretty standard.

However, when an accident involves a more serious injury, like a broken ankle or a brain injury, the costs of care skyrocket, and the stakes are raised. Insurance companies get worried about those massive hospital bills and begin seeking any way possible to limit what you receive. They may blame you for a car accident or call you clumsy after you’ve fallen in a business. They’ll try to downplay how badly you are hurt.

Another method they may use is to rush you out the door with a settlement as fast as possible. They hope that your worries over your financial situation make you desperate to accept anything.

A first settlement offer may not cover these important factors:

• The total on all of your current medical bills
• The estimates on the care you could need in the years to come, including care if your injury flares up
• The massive costs of lifetime care if you are left with a permanent physical disability
• The non-economic damages, such as the pain you endure that has the chance to become chronic pain
• The non-economic damages involved with the emotional trauma a terrible accident can leave you with, including depression and anxiety issues
• The compensation you can receive for your loss of enjoyment of life experienced with a long, difficult recovery and a change in lifestyle due to injury
• The total on the paychecks and benefits you miss while out of work
• The support you’ll need if a permanent disability leaves you unable to return to your previous work

A skilled California personal injury lawyer has the experience with insurance companies to spot a “lowball” settlement offer a mile away. Your lawyer identifies any settlement that won’t cover everything you’ll face ahead. Your lawyer helps you reject these claims and demand more.

What Happens If an Insurance Company Tries to Delay My California Accident Settlement?

Unfortunately, you don’t just have to watch out for quick settlements. Unfair settlements can also come in the slow variety. Insurers might also slow your claims experience way down. It’s another way for insurance adjusters to make you feel vulnerable.

They can ignore your calls and delay your settlement checks, as your medical bills stack up on your kitchen table. It’s an alternate way to make you desperate.

When you’ve gone weeks or months without a paycheck, you’ll likely jump at any settlement amount, feeling like you’re about to go bankrupt. That’s the perfect level of anxiety for the insurance adjuster to take advantage of.

A skilled personal injury attorney would take action. Your attorney would know how to reach someone at the insurance company who makes actual decisions. Your lawyer would also know when an insurer is purposely delaying action on your claim. Your lawyer would call them out and then report them to the California Department of Insurance. You can find out more about the deadlines insurers are supposed to obey on our insurance page here.

Contact a California Personal Injury Lawyer Today

After any type of accident in California, you may be feeling confused about your next steps. Dealing with the insurance company can be almost as stressful as the accident itself. Let us help you sort out what’s normal in a claims process, and what’s a sure sign of an insurance adjuster acting unfairly towards those already hurting.

Please contact us today for a completely free, no obligation legal consultation regarding your claim. And if you need our help to get fair treatment and to get more for your claim, you won’t need any money to hire us. Maison Law works on a contingency basis. It means we don’t get paid unless we win your case. Then our fee comes out of the settlement the insurer is forced to pay you.