When you are making a personal injury accident claim, there is a high possibility for you to deal with an insurance company. For example, if you are filing a lawsuit for a slip and fall accident, then the property owner’s insurance company will be most probably handling your claim. So it is important for you to know how an insurance company works on a case. Otherwise, there is a chance for you to get denied of right compensation that you deserve.
You can contact some top personal injury lawyers to help you with deciding the claim amount which you can put forward. Abest personal injury attorney will help you to get the amount that you truly deserve.
Insurance Adjuster
When you file a claim which involves an insurance company, then the company will assign an “adjuster” to handle your case. The adjuster will be an employee of the insurance company who will be investigating the details of your claim. The person will figure out what happened and will decide a claim worth the losses from the accident. Keep in mind that, the adjuster works to favor the company, not you. He will try to preserve the interest of the company and that will be his/ her primary goal. Therefore the adjuster will try to decide an amount that is as low as possible.
Even though an insurance company will try to reduce the claim amount, they will also try to avoid filing a lawsuit. In most of the cases, insurance companies will try to settle the case outside of the court, if not it will go to trial and a jury or judge will be the one who decides the claim amount.
The amount decided can be high if the judge is sympathetic to the victim. There will also be legal fees and other charges associated, which will be an extra expense for the company. So the adjuster will most probably offer you money which is reasonable, while also preserving the interest of the company.
How the Adjuster Decides an Amount
The factors that will affect the decision of an insurance adjuster are:
- Actual expenses associated with the accident, like medical bills
- The expenses that will be incurred in the future because of the accident.
- Loss of income or pay
- Pain and suffering
- Other negative impacts occurred to the victim due to the injuries of the accident
Other factors which an adjuster considers are the strength of the case and the policy limit. The person will decide on a final amount based on all these factors. If you know what all things will affect the decision of an insurance adjuster it will be easy for you to negotiate a good amount.