Justifications An Auto Insurance Provider Will Use To Offer A Lowball Settlement
After you are involved in a car accident and suffer an injury, you might think that pursuing a settlement with a car insurance company will be straightforward. However, the goal of the car insurance company is to make as much money as possible. Therefore, you have to prove that you are fully entitled to your damages and you may even be forced to take the insurance provider to court.
Your Activities After Your Accident
As you are recovering from your accident, the insurance provider might send an investigator to track your activities after the accident. This is done to make sure that you are not engaged in activities that you shouldn't be able to based on your injuries. However, the insurance provider can often be very unreasonable. You might have attended a party but that doesn't mean that you're recovered enough to return to full-time work.
Your social media posts will be scrutinized and it might make sense to delete posts and set your profile to private if possible. The insurance provider might even hire a private investigator to follow you around and make sure that you are not engaged in suspicious activities.
Your Medical Records
The insurance provider might want to access your medical records to look for evidence that your injuries are not as severe as you claim or that they are the result of a pre-existing condition. If you have a pre-existing condition, the goal will be for the insurance provider to prove that your injuries were not the result of the accident but were injuries that you already had prior to the accident.
However, with the help of an experienced personal injury attorney, you may be able to prove that your pre-existing injuries were exacerbated by the accident. Under the "eggshell doctrine," the at-fault driver will still be responsible for your injuries even if a prior injury made you more susceptible to becoming injured.
Misinterpreted Statements
Whenever you communicate with an insurance provider, you will want to use as little information as possible. Any statement made to the insurance provider or to a police officer who is filing the accident report can potentially be used against you.
The moment you believe that the insurance provider is trying to lowball you with a very low settlement offer while using one of these tactics, bring this up with a personal injury lawyer so you can discuss the next steps to take.
