How Insurance Companies Deal With Personal Injury Claims

Insurance companies do not relish the need to pay a large sum of money to someone that has submitted a personal injury claim. Consequently, insurers have designed unique ways for dealing with just such claims.

Questions that insurance companies ask when evaluating a claim:

• Is this accident covered under the terms of the policy that was purchased by the injured victim?
• Who can be held liable for this injury or this damage? Does it look like the one party might file a lawsuit against the responsible party?
• What is the total cost for all of the damages?

Tactics that insurance companies use, in order to avoid paying the cost of the injuries and damages associated with a given claim:

Arguing that the policy holder should not be held liable for the accident. The company’s legal team might offer evidence that the victim was at least partly responsible. Insurers know how to use the existence of seat belt laws as a tool, when striving to place the blame on the victim.

If an insurance company fails to produce convince a court that the victim was partly to blame for a given accident, it might search for evidence that a third party caused that particular incident. For instance, it might seek evidence that a driver’s car had malfunctioned because it had a defective part.

Personal Injury Lawyer in Barrie knows that sometimes that argument can be verified. Sometimes a number of car owners, all with a vehicle of the same brand and from the same year, have trouble controlling their cars, and thus struggle to avoid accidents.

The third tactic frequently used by insurance companies, in order to limit the amount of money that must be paid for known injuries and damages, involves the conclusion of negotiations. An early end to negotiations translates into an earlier time for paying a settlement. An insurer expresses a desire to pay the victim soon after the accident has taken place. Insurance companies make such an offer for a reason.

Those companies know that a victim’s injuries could trigger the development of complications. Alternately, a given injury might enhance the likelihood for introduction of other issues, such as problems with returning to work or getting a new job. For that reason, the insurer tells one of the adjusters to urge the victim to accept an early settlement.

Understand, too, that an injury can affect more than a victim’s ability to hold or get a job. It might make it difficult for that severely injured and not-fully-recovered man or woman to perform a variety of daily tasks, even very simple ones. When that is the case, then the unfortunate victim suffers a real loss; he or she becomes deprived of the ability to enjoy life.