Setareh Law
May 10, 2024
A Brief Summary of the Following Article
- Insurance Tactics: Insurance companies often employ strategies like disputing liability and devaluing claims to minimize payouts, which can significantly affect the compensation you receive for an accident.
- Policy Complexity: Understanding your insurance policy’s details is crucial as companies may exploit ambiguities to limit payouts. Thorough knowledge of policy coverage and limits is essential.
- Settlement Offers: Insurers frequently present low initial offers quickly after an accident, exploiting the claimant’s potential immediate financial needs. Such offers may not adequately cover long-term damages and losses.
- Legal Support: Setareh Law specializes in personal injury cases, helping clients navigate complex insurance claims, ensuring fair compensation, and providing robust defense against insurance company tactics.
When you’re dealing with an insurance claim after an accident, understanding the challenges you might face is crucial. Insurance companies, while necessary, often aim to minimize their payouts. If you’re in this situation, recognizing these tactics can be the first step toward ensuring you receive fair compensation. This is where Setareh Law can assist, providing the expertise and support needed to navigate these complex issues.
Our team at Setareh Law specializes in personal injury cases across California. We understand that dealing with insurance companies can be daunting, especially when you are recovering from an accident. Our experience and dedication ensure that your rights are protected and that you receive the full compensation you deserve. We encourage you to contact us if you want legal support during your claim, as our firm can reduce the odds of insurance companies devaluing your losses.
Common Strategies Used by Insurance Companies to Devalue Claims
Insurance companies employ various strategies to reduce the amount they pay in claims, such as:
Disputing Liability
One standard method insurance companies will use is disputing liability. They might argue that the policyholder is at fault or question the extent of their responsibility. This can involve scrutinizing the accident details or even suggesting that the claimant’s negligence contributed to the incident. They may also use information they can access to insinuate victims are more responsible than they actually are.
Claim Devaluation
Another tactic insurance companies may attempt is to devalue your claim. Insurers may argue that your injuries are less severe than claimed or that they are pre-existing. They might also challenge the necessity and cost of medical treatments. This often involves extensive reviews of medical records and seeking opinions from medical experts.
Policy Details and Coverage Limits
Navigating the complexities of your insurance policy is vital. Policies can have various clauses and coverage limits that might affect your claim. Insurance companies often exploit a lack of understanding about these details to their advantage. It’s essential to comprehend what your policy covers and the limits of this coverage.
Insurance companies can reduce the value of your claims by assuming you don’t know what to expect from your coverage. Insurance will intentionally make their policies challenging to access, read, or understand. They are deeply interested in ensuring you are under-informed about your coverage.
However, when you are more aware of what coverage you actually have from your policies, insurance companies can get away with much less.
Delay Tactics
Sometimes, insurers use delay tactics. They might take an excessively long time to process the claim or respond to queries. These delays can be frustrating and financially straining for claimants, particularly if they are dependent on the settlement to cover medical bills and lost wages.
Low Initial Offers
One of the common tactics insurance companies use is presenting initial settlement offers that may seem appealing but are often inadequate to cover the full extent of your damages and losses.
These offers are typically made soon after the accident, capitalizing on the claimant’s potential need for quick financial relief. However, accepting such offers without thorough evaluation can result in insufficient compensation, especially for long-term impacts like ongoing medical treatment, rehabilitation costs, and lost earning potential.
At Setareh Law, we emphasize the importance of carefully assessing these initial offers. Our experienced team diligently evaluates every aspect of your claim. We ensure that any settlement offer you consider truly reflects the full scope of your losses, providing you with the information and guidance needed to make an informed decision.
Navigating Initial Settlement Offers From Insurance Companies: How to Obtain Fair Compensation From Policies
If you have been offered a low settlement from an insurance company, you do not have to accept it. If you have not accepted an offer, you can negotiate with the company and utilize specific tools and options to receive complete compensation.
Allow us to break down a few ways you can reduce the likelihood of being taken advantage of by insurance companies:
Provide as Little Information as Possible to Insurance
When you communicate with insurance, whether yours or another party’s, we encourage you to provide as little information as possible. While you will be required to answer specific questions for insurance, do your best to refrain from giving them more information than they have requested.
Insurance companies will use any and all information they can gather against you, as they want to reduce the value of your claim. This practice helps them maintain their overall profits, as they do not have the best intentions for victims of severe injuries.
Evidence
Many believe they can only get compensation for their medical bills and vehicle repairs. However, you can receive a greater financial recovery in any claim where you face severe injuries due to another person’s irresponsible behaviors.
The following pieces of evidence will most likely be helpful to your claim:
- Police report
- Medical documents, including bills, treatment plans, doctor notes, and records or history
- Witness statements
- Contact information from witnesses
- Written communication, including emails, letters, and notes from phone conversations
- Photos and videos of the incident
- Records of your injuries, including written descriptions and photographs
- Physical evidence
- Property damage receipts
- Pay stubs from work, including those reflecting a reduction in payment
Strong documentation and evidence are your best defense against these strategies. It’s crucial to collect and preserve all evidence related to the accident and your injuries. Detailed evidence strengthens your position and counters the insurance company’s attempts to undermine your claim.
Timely communication is also important. Ensure that all interactions with the insurance company are documented. This documentation can be vital in disputes. Access to these pieces of evidence will help demonstrate the value of your claim and boost your legal arguments.
Work With an Attorney Before Accepting Settlements
We strongly recommend that you retain legal support from an attorney before you accept a settlement offer. A lawyer, such as one from Setareh Law, can help ensure that insurance companies do not take advantage of you. Insurance companies know they cannot get away with low offers when an attorney represents someone.
Setareh Law is intimately familiar with legal processes in personal injury law, including what practices are permitted in insurance policies and claims. We know how to argue in your favor, allowing us to demonstrate a higher and more accurate representation of your claim’s value. Our firm gives you the negotiating power to hold insurance companies accountable for their responsibilities.
How Else Can a Lawyer Help With Your Personal Injury Claim?
When you encounter legal proceedings, working with an attorney can be an invaluable asset to your case. Specifically, when you are managing legal matters related to serious injuries and monetary losses, working with a personal injury lawyer can be extremely beneficial.
When you work with an attorney from Setareh Law, you can receive assistance with:
- Conducting an independent investigation
- Negotiating with every party to recover a satisfactory settlement
- Collecting evidence to prove liability
- Assuring that all documents are filed correctly and promptly
- Reviewing your damages to determine the total value of your claim
- Communicating with the other parties on your behalf
- Working with your healthcare providers to obtain any missing records
- Accessing research methods and tools only available to legal professionals
- Providing a quicker delivery of documents from law enforcement and doctors
We encourage you to refrain from representing yourself during your legal matters, which can result in reduced compensation. However, when you work with Setareh Law, you can receive complete compensation, experience a stress reduction, and spend less time in litigation. Please contact us at your convenience.
Why Choose Setareh Law for Your Case?
At Setareh Law, we bring extensive experience in dealing with insurance companies. We understand their tactics and know how to effectively counter them. Our team is dedicated to ensuring that your rights are protected and that you receive the full compensation you are entitled to.
We handle each case on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we win your case. With Setareh Law, you gain a partner who fights tirelessly for your rights and interests. Contact us today at (310) 659-1826 or through our contact form for a free case evaluation. Let us help you navigate the complexities of your insurance claim and work towards the fair compensation you deserve. We also speak Spanish.
