In most cases, yes. Going to trial can be very expensive for insurance companies. It can also result in bad publicity. Insurers usually would rather reach a car accident settlement agreement with victims.
The fear of a trial can also motivate an insurer to offer more in compensation to personal injury victims. When victims have a lawyer handling their case, this makes the threat of a lawsuit and trial stronger, often leading to bigger settlement checks.
If you are seriously injured in a California traffic accident, it’s a good idea to have a lawyer go over your case. A California car accident lawyer can often secure much more for victims than they could win by taking on a giant auto insurer themselves.
Car Insurance Tactics That Make a Lawsuit Necessary
After an accident, car insurance companies would like to get you out the door with as little drain on their profits as possible. They’d like a quick resolution, but they also want to limit what you receive to fix your car and to pay medical bills.
Quick Settlement Offer Extended – A settlement may be floated out to you within the first weeks or the first month after a crash. It might arrive while you’re still unsure of what you’ll need to fully recover. What they extend is usually a “lowball” offer, meaning it’s not enough to cover all of your bills and other damages. Once you sign, you can’t go back to ask for more when you realize you didn’t win enough to pay for everything.
Delayed Settlement Offers — If insurers need to make you wait to get off cheaper, they will. They can purposely delay a response while you get more and more desperate to secure some money to pay off your medical debt. Pretty soon, you’re ready to accept any offer they make, even a low offer, just to avoid bankruptcy.
Insurers can also refuse to admit that their policyholder (the at-fault driver) caused the accident, even when a police accident report says so. They might also use in-house doctors to downplay the victim’s injuries, simply to get away with providing less in compensation.
These shady strategies and others can leave car accident victims, especially those with injuries, unhappy with their settlement offers. If an insurance adjuster won’t provide everything victims need to rebuild their lives, taking the insurer to court is sometimes the only option.
How Can the Car Insurance Company’s Fear of a Trial Help Me Earn More?
Of course, a skilled car accident attorney has seen all of these tactics before. A lawyer can identify offers that should be much higher, reject them, and then use the available evidence to negotiate for a much higher settlement.
Having a lawyer can also serve as a warning to insurers. Treat the victim fairly, or you may be dragged before a judge and jury. A Maison Law attorney would already have a strong case prepared and backed with evidence in case a trial is the only way to force the insurance company to do what’s right.
These are a few of the reasons an insurance firm may try to offer you a better settlement rather than risk a trip to a California courtroom:
- Expense. Insurers want to avoid going to court because it’s usually mounting a defense is usually expensive for them (they love to protect their profits). This can entail all the lawyer fees, court fees, and the additional investigative costs.
- Uncertainty. There’s also the uncertainty of a trial. The judge will control how much the victim is awarded. In a settlement, the insurance company has more influence on what is provided.
- Looking Bad. The effort to deny help to an injured car accident victim can also result in bad publicity for the company. Their shady tactics might be brought to light in testimony and evidence presented in court. This can cost an insurer customers.
What Should a Fair Car Accident Settlement Include?
It’s not that hard to figure out what victims need after an accident, even though insurance companies can make the claims process frustrating.
Injured patients should get full compensation for all of their medical bills and car body repair costs. But that’s just the start. An accident can also leave emotional scars and long-term financial issues.
A California car accident attorney would demand that a settlement cover these hardships and others:
- Totals on all hospital expenses. The immediate costs and the costs expected in the future. When a permanent physical disability is involved, estimates on long-term care and support are submitted.
- Support for physical pain endured.
- Support for emotional trauma endured.
- Compensation for a loss of enjoyment of life, perhaps stemming from being unable to enjoy hobbies and participate in family activities for weeks or months.
- Support for a loss of consortium (the loss of intimacy with family members).
- Travel costs getting to and from doctor’s visits and surgery consultations.
- Money for vehicle repairs or vehicle replacement.
- Past and future lost earnings and work benefits.
- Wrongful death benefits. Families who have lost loved ones in a fatal traffic accident should file wrongful death claims to secure support for burial expenses and lingering medical bills. They’ll also seek help with making up the income the victim can no longer provide for close relatives. If justice can’t be found through a settlement, a California wrongful death lawyer could help the family prepare for a trial.
Contact a California Car Accident Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto accident, contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at Maison Law. We offer a no-cost consultation to all victims and their family members. You should also contact us if a car insurance company has rejected your initial claim.
- It’s a free case review
- There’s no obligation
- The case consultation is always confidential
- A no-risk way to find out what you receive from a car insurance company
- A no-risk way to find out if a lawsuit is necessary
We do not charge any upfront fees for our service, and you won’t pay a cent unless we secure a fair settlement on your behalf. Then our fees come out of the settlement check that a car insurance company is forced to provide.
