By Matthew Willens
While Insurance companies are good at collecting premiums from people like you and me, they are even better at not paying out full and fair compensation on personal injury cases. They try and mitigate their losses by using different tactics and strategies to pay out as little money as possible. This is why you likely need a personal injury law firm on your side; to ensure that you are represented properly to the insurance companies, so you can get the settlement you need and deserve for your case.
Here are seven things Insurance companies don’t want you to know, otherwise they will have to pay out a full and fair settlement to you.
1.) A Reputable Personal Injury Lawyer Results In Them Paying Out Much More
An insurance company knows that if you hire a reputable personal injury lawyer, they will likely have to pay you significantly more money. Statistically, you will get 350% more money for your injury case with a lawyer on your side. An insurance representative may try to convince you that it is not in your best interests to hire an attorney. They’re wrong. They will likely tell you that, after attorney fees, you will get less money than if you handle the matter on your own. Wrong again. An insurance company representative trying to convince you that you don’t need a lawyer on your side should be a HUGE red flag to you. They are simply attempting to minimize their losses. Perhaps you should ask the insurance representative (who may be an attorney himself) why they have so many attorneys on retainer to help them.
2.) The More You Speak The More You Devalue Your Case
If you happen to speak with the insurance adjuster, which we do NOT recommend, it is important to remember that the adjuster’s primary responsibility is to make money for the insurance company. Insurance is a for profit business, and as a business they want to pay out as little as possible on your claim. The fact of the matter is that, even if the insurance claim adjuster seems warm and friendly, he is motivated to save the insurance company money. Don’t be fooled by a friendly insurance claim adjuster who seems to be interested in you personally. The bottom line is that his interests are the exact opposite as yours and are never motivated to pay out the amount of money you need and deserve. Additionally, it is important to understand that if an insurance adjuster requests a recorded statement from you, so they can “evaluate your case”, that statement is only designed to hurt you, never help you. The insurance company is not your friend.
3.) Insurance Adjusters Are Master Negotiators
Insurance adjusters are highly trained and likely very experienced at negotiating personal injury cases. Most insurance adjusters have negotiated hundreds, maybe thousands of personal injury cases. The odds are that this is your first personal injury negotiation. The smart thing to do is level the playing field and get a well-qualified personal injury lawyer on your side to handle negotiations on your behalf.
4.) Insurance Adjusters Have an Entire Legal Department Behind Them
An insurance claims adjuster works in conjunction with the insurance company’s legal department. Often the adjusters are attorneys themselves. When you speak with the adjuster, you are, in essence, battling an entire legal department with a lot of experience and endless resources. Adjusters are often trained by attorneys on the law and psychologists on the tactics to get the upper hand in a negotiation. The adjuster uses this information and these tactics, to ultimately take advantage of you and pay out the lowest amount of money possible.
5.) Insurance Companies Employ Their Own Doctors & Experts
Insurance companies employ their own doctors whose objective is to minimize the nature of a victim’s injuries and thus the value of their claims. These doctors know where their bread is buttered and their medical opinions are almost always in favor of the insurance company. Based upon what the far-from-independent doctors’ opinions are, if the adjusters do not flat out deny the claim, they will attempt to pay you a significantly lower amount of money than it is rightfully worth. Keep in mind that, if you choose to share your medical records with the insurance company, your records will be scrutinized in order to deny or minimize your medical claims. They may even order records, very personal records, that have nothing to do with the subject incident. This is all designed to minimize the value of your claim.
6.) They Use Tried and Tested “Tripe D Tactics” To Force Settlement For Less
While they may not admit to it, insurance companies often train their people to employ “Triple D Tactics” of Delay, Deny and Defend to discourage claimants and get them frustrated enough with the whole process to just settle for the insurance companies low offer or better yet just go away without making a claim at all. They delay matters far longer than necessary, because the longer they can hold onto their money, the better for their bottom line. They deny valid claims both regarding liability and damages. They will spend endless resources defending cases that they should be settling for a fair value.
7.) Insurance Companies Know Which Personal Injury Lawyers “Mean Business”
Insurance companies know about personal injury lawyers that “mean business”. They know which attorneys are actually willing and able to take a case all the way to trial vs. those that are not and hence they offer lower settlement amounts to those lawyers who they know are not willing or able to see the case through to the end. The more serious your injuries are the more important it is to go with a lawyer who “means business.”
I’m attorney Matt Willens and together with my partner, David Baez, we run Willens and Baez Personal Injury Lawyers with our main offices in Chicago (but serving clients throughout Illinois). What gives us an edge on other personal injury law firms, is that earlier in our career, we both worked “for the other side” for the defense industry and defended insurance companies in personal injury cases. This experience of knowing precisely how the other side does things has become an invaluable tool for getting our personal injury clients great results. As one of our clients said once “It’s like Matt and David know what the other side is going to do before they do it.”
The other thing that sets us apart is our trial experience. We are not afraid to take cases to trial if we feel the insurance company is not playing ball and offering our clients full and fair compensation. The insurance companies know this and it gives us an advantage over other personal injury attorneys.
Over the years we’ve recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients. Though we are best known for our results involving catastrophic injury and death cases, we are pleased to evaluate cases involving what some would consider minor injuries.
So if you’ve been in a car, bicycle, motorcycle or truck accident… or if someone you know has been a victim of any other type of accident with injury, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for a free consultation.
We’re very approachable and will tell you honestly if we think you have a case or not and what your next steps should be.
You can contact our office 24/7 by calling (312) 957-4166
I hope this article has helped you in some way. Feel free to pass it on to someone who you think would benefit from this information.
Sincerely,
Matthew Willens
