Don’t Settle: 3 People Who Can Help You Get A Better Insurance Settlement
For many people, negotiating is an uncomfortable process. This is especially true when the person on the other side of the negotiating table has significantly more experience and expertise. Insurance companies spend their days doing little more than evaluating claims, putting prices on them, and trying to persuade claimants to accept the settlement offers they make.
The lion’s share of insurance claimants do not enlist a professional to assist them in securing maximum compensation for their claims. This means that when they end up accepting a settlement offer that adds up to far less than their claims are actually worth. If you want to make sure this does not happen to you, here are three types of people who can help you get a better insurance settlement.
An Attorney
Many attorneys dedicate their whole professional lives to representing accident victims and fighting insurance companies to help their clients receive all the compensation they are owed for their claims. They know how insurance adjusters evaluate claims, what tactics adjusters use to justify their typically low valuations and how adjusters try to bait claimants into taking settlements that do not adequately compensate them. They can help guide you through the process of filing your claim and negotiating for the amount you deserve.
A Doctor or Medical Billing Expert
When your claim involves attempting to recover compensation for physical injuries you have suffered as a result of someone else’s negligence or intentional misconduct, you need a doctor’s expertise. A doctor can explain to the responsible party’s insurance adjuster what kind of treatment your injuries have already necessitated and what kind of treatment you will need for them in the future.
A medical billing expert will give opinions about whether the medical bills you have already incurred and will incur in the future are reasonable and customary for the geographic area where you received or will receive treatment. Often, doctors are also qualified to give opinions about whether the accident created the need for treatment and whether the amounts billed for treatment were reasonable and customary. Providing medical records to the insurance company and referring them to the proper professional can go a long way in proving your case.
A Public Insurance Adjuster
For the best understanding of the claims evaluation process, turn to a public insurance adjuster. When they do claim evaluations, they can look and what you’ve been offered and tell you truthfully if it’s a reasonable sum or not. Your adjuster will have resources similar—if not identical—to those the insurance company’s adjuster is using, including sophisticated software used to assign a value to every piece of your case. Because they know how adjusters evaluate claims, they can use their software’s outputs and their own industry knowledge to present your claim to the insurance company in the way that is most favorable to you.
Dealing with an insurance claim is a difficult process, especially if you’re dealing with injuries that resulted from the accident. When you need to get the most out of your insurance claim that you can, make sure you have a lawyer, medical professional, insurance adjuster, or a combination of the three on your side.
