How Do Insurance Adjusters Handle Personal Injury Claims?

If you are ever involved in a personal injury accident and hire a personal injury lawyer, he or she will likely mention something about an insurance adjuster. You may have wondered who that person is. Well, this article will answer that question along with the nature of their work. Your personal injury lawyer will tell you that you need to know who an insurance adjuster is and you need to understand the type of work that he or she does. It will give you a definite advantage when you are trying to win your personal injury claim. The reason why is because you’ll likely be solely dealing with the insurance adjuster. Also, since you’ll know much more about your own case than the insurance adjuster will, you’ll definitely be at an advantage.

Your Personal Injury Lawyer in Barrie will tell you that there are times when your case may not be handled by the insurance adjuster from the defendant’s insurance company. The insurance company may well outsource the claim and have an independent insurance adjuster look at your claim. This is generally done if the insurer doesn’t have an office in the area where you live. Independent insurance adjusters don’t have the same levels of authority as regular insurance adjusters do. All of their actions and decisions must be supervised and approved by a claim’s adjuster supervisor. The process of negotiating and settling a personal injury claim doesn’t change though.

If you’re filing a claim against a government entity, you can be sure that you’ll be seeing a claims adjuster from its own office. While the general negotiations process is the same, your personal injury lawyer will probably tell you that you shouldn’t expect a large settlement amount should your case go to court.

In some instances, you and your lawyer will be negotiating with the defense and another lawyer appointed by the insurance company. This lawyer serves on behalf of an insurance adjuster. Rest assured that since the negotiations process is the same, your chances of getting a settlement are high, especially if you are very familiar with the details of the case, and your personal injury lawyer is very familiar with personal injury law. If you are filing a claim with your own insurance company, you won’t be seeing an insurance adjuster. You’ll be dealing with its claims department instead. You’ll be dealing with a claims adjuster who works on behalf of your insurance company.

How do adjusters settle claims?

You’ll have a much better chance of getting the settlement that you deserve if you know something that your lawyer already does. The insurance adjuster is paid based on how little of his or her employer’s money he or she pays you in a settlement amount. The adjuster’s pay and promotion prospects are greater if he or she settles your case as quickly as possible. You probably figured out that the insurance adjuster is not on your side, no matter how cordial or friendly he or she may appear to be.

More experienced adjusters tend to agree to higher settlement amounts than less experienced adjusters. Insurance adjusters tend not to tell you what their version of the settlement is or what the limits of their authority are unless they think that you are going to get a higher settlement amount from somewhere else. Getting the settlement that you want is easier now that you know more about insurance adjusters and what they do.