- October 7, 2013
- Personal Injury
Insurance companies are notoriously conservative when it comes to paying out claims, and some are known to use unscrupulous techniques to lowball claimants. Your personal injury lawyer in Puyallup will warn you what to expect.
One Technique
One common technique is for the claims representative to contact another personal injury attorney in Puyallup and ask them to draft an opinion letter stating that your claim is not worth anything, and send the letter to you and your personal injury lawyer in Puyallup to try to convince you to drop your demand. But the insurance representative will have kept certain facts from that attorney, so their opinion cannot be trusted.
Insurance companies also know that litigating a personal injury claim is time-consuming for both you and your personal injury lawyer in Puyallup, and many claimants are busy with jobs to spend a lot of time fighting them. Taking time off work, potentially losing more in wages, and having to pay for travel and lodging to the site of a deposition or court appearance, can be significant to a claimant who is already racking up medical bills, and some insurance companies will try to take advantage of that fact. Talk to your personal injury attorney in Puyallup about what you can do to minimize your expenses.
“Shop Around”
Another particularly shady tactic is to “shop around” for an expert who will testify to anything that the insurer can use to deny or reduce the value of the claim, and then send the report to your personal injury lawyer in Puyallup. This is so that the file contains an “expert” report that lets the insurance adjuster say that your claim is worth less than it really is. But the adjuster controls the scope of the report they asked for, and it is likely to be based on incomplete or biased information, making the entire report incorrect and easily dealt with by your personal injury attorney in Puyallup.
Yet one more tactic is to try to associate the plaintiff with a lifestyle or station that might not be looked upon favorably by the average juror. For example, if the plaintiff belongs to a biker’s gang, the adjuster might consider whether the jury’s perception will be colored by that fact. Your personal injury lawyer in Puyallup will emphasize that this should not matter to the jury.
For Legal Assistance with Your Claim
For help dealing with lowballing tactics by insurance companies, call a personal injury lawyer in Puyallup. Call Greene & Lloyd PLLC at (253) 770-0808.