Being involved in an accident can easily set your life back. As you suffer a debilitating injury, you may also struggle financially. As an accident victim, you can usually have your financial complications through a personal injury claim. However, securing the compensation you deserve is not a straightforward process. Insurance companies may seem friendly to you at first. However, whatever they do is meant to protect their bottom line.
After you suffered an injury in an accident caused by the negligence of another party, you could deal with the bad faith tactics of insurance companies. When this happens, you must contact one of the best injury attorneys Huntington Beach, so they can handle talks with the insurance company for you. Your lawyer is aware of the common tactics that insurance companies use and knows how to counter them.
Common Bad Faith Tactics Insurers Use
Insurance companies don’t want to offer a full settlement for our valid claim, so they may use tactics to justify their refusal. Such tactics can make you feel even more overwhelming than you already are as you think of the bills you need to pay and you cannot work. It can be tempting to accept a lowball settlement offer from an insurance company to resolve your claim. However, doing so will make it impossible for you to seek additional compensation later should your condition worsens. Below are the common bad faith tactics insurance companies use:
- Delaying your claim. An insurance company may delay offers or intentionally doesn’t respond to your claim, hoping that you would give up after waiting some time.
- Not investigating your case thoroughly. Some insurance companies may only check a few problems involved in your accident and determine the amount of compensation to offer based on such factors instead of investigating your accident. Without relevant information and analysis, an insurer won’t have a full picture of our accident and may end up giving unfair settlement.
- Offering less money than you deserve. Insurance companies will always make lowball offers in the hopes that you are desperate enough to accept them.
Things You Should Not Do
When you deal with insurance companies, they may force you to provide them with a recorded or written statement. Sometimes, they may ask you to sign documents up front such as those that involve waiving your right to sue and pursuing more compensation. Unfortunately, giving in to these requests will put you at a serious disadvantage. Insurance companies will use your words against you later. This is the reason you should let your lawyer handle them for you.
