How Do The Plaintiff And Defendant Come To An Agreement?

A settlement or agreement represents a meeting of the minds, with respect to the amount of money that the defendant ought to pay the claimant/plaintiff.

Steps leading to an agreement

Lawyer-client team composes and sends a demand letter to the adjuster. The adjuster responds by pointing out the weaknesses in their argument.

The lawyer-client team responds to the adjuster’s comments. It adds to the strength of its arguments. The adjuster makes a counter offer, the opening offer from the insurance company.

The client consults with the injury lawyer in Barrie and arrives at the figure to present in response to that initial offer. The adjuster presents the client-lawyer team with yet another counteroffer.

That team must again determine how it should respond. The counteroffers and responses continue, until both sides agree on one figure. At that point, the claimant should send a letter to the insurance company, asking for confirmation of the agreed-upon figure, and seeking information on the date when the compensation should be coming.

Etiquette associated with the process that leads to an agreement

Once the adjuster has received the demand letter, he or she should be contacting the claimant. If the claimant does not hear from the adjuster, he or she has the right to take certain actions:

–First, call the adjuster, in order to learn about the reason for the lack of a response. The adjuster might ask for more time to study the demand letter.
–The claimant could wait that added amount of time, and see if the adjuster does place the promised call. If there were to be no call, then the claimant and lawyer would have the right to contact the adjuster’s supervisor.

Another document that could be placed under the heading of etiquette would be the reservation letter. Insurance companies have a legal right to send a reservation letter to someone that has filed a personal injury claim. Still, that right does not make the reservation of rights letter any less unsettling to the claimant.

In such a letter, the insurance company states that is has launched an investigation, but has made no promises, with respect to the delivery of any form of compensation. The letter’s contents should make it clear that the insurance company has no obligation to pay compensatory funds, until it has completed its investigation.

Claimants have the right to make a response to a low-ball offer. That response could take the form of a written request for the reasons behind the adjuster’s low-ball offer. The claimant could seek the answer to that request for reason, and he or she could do that during the next call with the adjuster.