Tactics Car Insurance Companies Use to Devalue or Deny Claims

No one enjoys dealing with an insurance company, especially after a serious car accident while also suffering from injuries that may require painful treatment, rehabilitation, and lengthy recovery times. All of these aspects of the aftermath of an accident are distressing enough, but what about when an insurance company devalues your compensation claim, continually delays progress, or denies your valid claim? A personal injury lawyer can help navigate these challenges.

Knowing what tactics to expect from car accident insurers can help injury victims avoid common pitfalls.

The Reason Insurers Call With an Early Settlement Offer

One of the first potential pitfalls an insurance company uses to protect their profits at your expense is to call you within days of the accident with a settlement offer. Often, the offer comes before you could even know the full extent of your physical injuries and the economic damages that result from them, like medical costs and lost wages—or even a lifetime of partial or total disability.

An early settlement offer is almost always far lower than the full compensation available to you when you pursue a claim for economic and non-economic damages. Insurers do this intentionally because when you accept a lowball early settlement offer it requires signing away your right to a lawsuit.

Why Insurance Companies Call You on a Recorded Line

When a compassionate-toned insurance adjuster says they’re calling on a recorded line, many injury victims don’t think twice, but taking the call means you implicitly give permission for them to record your conversation. During the call, they may ask for details about the accident and your injuries. By recording the call they can later extract some of your remarks out of context and use them against you to undervalue or deny your claim. For example, if you say “I never saw him coming” they may claim this is an admission that you were a distracted driver or didn’t practice due diligence when navigating an intersection.

They May Assign You an Undue Percentage of Fault For the Accident

In pure comparison negligence states like California, an insurance company can lower the amount they have to pay on a car accident victim’s claim by their percentage of fault. This incentivizes an insurance adjuster to find fault in your driving actions leading up to the accident. For example, if you have a $100,000 claim for damages but the insurance company finds you 25% at fault because you said, “I never saw him coming” so they claim you were distracted, they can lower the amount they pay you to $75,000.

Read the Fine Print on a Medical Authorization Request

Insurance adjusters commonly ask victims to sign a medical authorization form so they can review your injury records from the car accident. This sounds logical enough, but often what victims sign is a full medical authorization that allows the adjuster to access their entire medical history looking for pre-existing conditions or prior injuries they can claim are the real cause of your pain or symptoms. Never sign a blanket medical authorization. Instead, allow access only to your injury report from the car accident.

The Real Reasons Insurance Companies Delay Progress on Your Claim

Insurance companies may use delaying tactics against you that are not examples of their inefficiency but are purposeful. Insurance adjusters ask for repeated or redundant paperwork, postpone negotiation meetings, delay returning emails, and evade calls. They know that the longer the process takes, the more likely you are to accept a low settlement offer out of exasperation or because you need immediate financial relief. Also, quite simply, the longer they hold onto the amount of your payout the longer it earns interest in their account instead of yours.

How Can a California Car Accident Attorney Help?

Instead of navigating these insurance company pitfalls while you are injured and vulnerable, it’s always best to hire an experienced car accident attorney and then direct all calls and communications from the insurance company to your lawyer. Your car accident attorney will protect your rights and argue assertively for your best interests. Call the San Diego car accident lawyers at Haffner & Morgan today so we can quickly take action.