Should I Accept the First Car Insurance Settlement Offer?

After a car accident, you may be tempted to take the first settlement offer provided by the insurance company.

Remember, accepting a settlement is entirely voluntary.

Our attorneys have negotiated hundreds of high-profile pre-trial offers and use proven strategies to get paid the highest amount possible across thousands of cases.

In most cases you should reject the initial insurance settlement, as it usually falls pathetically short of valuation you deserve

The insurers commonly try to rush a lowball settlement, in an attempt to take advantage of the desperation and overwhelm a serious car accident can create.

Prematurely accepting the first offer without negotiating can potentially devalue your auto accident injury case.

Don't be fooled, don't be rushed, and don't settle for less than you deserve.

What may seem like a fair offer at first, often doesn't include consideration for the full extent of damages you are entitled.

Even if you think the offer you received is fair, let our personal injury attorney review your settlement offer before you accept anything.

It's free, takes just a few minutes, and having an experienced lawyer review your settlement with you could save you from making a costly mistake.

The insurance company's initial offer is the starting point for negotiations. It rarely will include compensation consideration for the full scope of your damages. An experienced auto accident lawyer will be able to quickly calculate a true estimate of what your case is worth and help with the settlement negotiations in order to maximize your payout.

A fair settlement offer should cover your economic damages, as well as non-economic damages like pain and suffering where applicable. Compensation should fully cover your personal injury and accident-related expenses and include money non-economic losses you may be entitled. For example, what a rear-end accident is potentially worth is highly dependent upon the severity of injuries sustained. An expert personal injury lawyer will help you evaluate the true value of your case and ensure all the damages which have legal merit receive the consideration they deserve. Potential damages to consider include the following:

• Medical Expenses: Costs for emergency care, hospitalization, surgery, medication, rehabilitation, and any future medical treatments.
• Lost Wages: Compensation for the income lost due to time off work caused by the crash, past, present, and future.
• Lost Earning Capacity: An accounting for future loss of opportunity resulting from the accident caused injuries.
• Property Damage: Recovery of losses incurred repairing or replacing your vehicle and including a valuation for personal property damaged or lost in the accident.
• Pain and Suffering: Compensation for physical pain and emotional distress resulting from the accident in jurisdictions that allow.
• Loss of Enjoyment of Life: If the injuries prevent you from enjoying day-to-day activities enjoyed in a pre-accident state.
• Permanent Disability or Disfigurement: Potential compensation if the accident results in long-term disability or scarring.
• Other Damages: Other potential damages may include out-of-pocket expenses, loss of consortium, emotional distress, therapy costs, and legal fees.

Any claim or legal action should carefully document and include a full list of of damages which may warrant compensation depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances of the case.

It's in the insurance company's best interest to minimize what they have to pay, and they employ a number of deceptive tricks, hoping to take advantage of a claimants lack of knowledge about their rights.

Protecting your rights and maximizing your payout amount is what makes it worth getting an attorney for a car accident. Insurers can be expected to undervalue the extent of your injuries, strategically omit damages that a victim's auto injury claim should include, and try to rush through a lowball payout. Don't expect the insurance company to play fair. Insurer's regularly use the following tactics to undvervalue claims and undermine your case:

• Quick Settlement Offers: Offering a low settlement quickly before the full extent of damages is realized.
• Disputing Liability: Challenging the claimant's version of events, blaming or spinning the circumstances to assign the claimant a degree of fault.
• Disputing Injuries: Includes minimizing injuries, disputing the severity, implying the victim is faking or a liar, or suggesting the impact resulted from pre-existing conditions and not the crash which initiated the claim.
• Delaying Tactics: Drawing out the claims process to put pressure on claimants to accept a smaller settlements.
• Inadequate Investigation: Failing to recognize all damages and/or ignoring evidence would benefit the victim's claim.
• Catastrophic Accident Mitigation Teams: Emergency investigation teams sent to the scene of catastrophic accidents to search for and document any physical evidence which can help mitigate their exposure.
• Surveillance and Monitoring: Evidence gathering on social media and public places used to dispute the claimant's life-altering injury claims and lifestyle impact.

You can expect the insurance company to use these tactics in an attempt to reduce the amount they have to pay. You need an accident lawyer who knows how to stand up to these powerful insurance companies on your behalf. Most accident injury victim's don't know what they are up against until it's too late.

If you reject an unfair settlement offer, in most cases, it leads to negotitation. Depending on the strength of your case, and the circumstances surrounding your car accident, they may bring you a better offer.

In most cases, the insurance companies want a settlement to avoid court.

Your legal representation should handle all communications with the insurance company, and handle the settlement negotiations.

This process is a back and forth between your injury lawyer and the insurer, in pursuit of a full and fair settlement amount that fully covers what you are entitled.

A rejection of a settlement offer does not mean that you are opting for litigation. The goal of your attorney is maximizing settlement negotiations to obtain the best possible result.

However, in some cases, if in consultation with your injury lawyer it's deemed that the insurance companies insist on undervaluing the claim and refuse to provide an offer reflecting the true value, it may be in your best interest to reject a settlement and seek recovery through litigation.

If after everything you went through, you are only offerer a paltry pre-trial settlement amount, than a lawsuit may be your only path to recover the money commensurate for what you endured. A successful auto accident case verdict won in the courts can then potentially recover the compensation you deserve.