Personal injury settlements take time to settle, but it is incredibly frustrating when little or no progress is being made in your case. You may feel like the insurance company is ghosting you, ignoring you, and delaying your claim indefinitely and that you will never make a fair recovery.
Each day your expenses and pain worsen, and you need your car accident, truck crash, motorcycle wreck, or other personal injury claim to move forward. Accordingly, our experienced personal injury lawyers encourage you to learn more about why insurance companies delay settlement negotiations, how they delay fair settlements, and what you can do to keep your case moving forward.
Delays Benefit the Insurance Company
Insurers have one goal. They want to pay personal injury accident victims as little as possible for their injuries so that they can maximize their own profits. At first, the insurer may try to get you to agree to a quick settlement before you know the extent of your injuries or what your claim is worth. If that doesn’t work, the once insistent insurance adjuster may suddenly become quiet and impossible to reach.
Now, instead of trying to get you to settle your claim quickly, the insurer wants you to become frustrated with the process and insecure about ever getting fair compensation. That way, you may accept whatever settlement they suggest when they finally make an offer. Additionally, they may try to keep you believing that a settlement is forthcoming without actually providing a settlement with the hope that the statute of limitations will expire and you will lose the right to collect damages in court.
How Insurance Companies Delay Personal Injury Settlements
Insurers may use a variety of delay tactics, including:
- Taking a long time to verify insurance coverage
- Claiming they could not reach you
- Not returning your calls, emails, or letters
- Failing to provide you with a claim number
- Making you believe that they need more evidence than they do to settle your claim
- Citing an exclusion in the insurance policy as a reason not to pay when the exclusion doesn’t apply to your claim
- Changing insurance representatives assigned to your case and claiming the process needs to start over
- Sending correspondence to your previous address
- Sending you paperwork or requests for documentation one piece at a time so that it takes longer to gather evidence
- Denying your claim and forcing you to appeal or go to court
Often, insurers use more than one of these strategies to avoid prompt and fair personal injury settlements.
What You Can Do to Overcome an Insurance Company Delay
The insurance company knows you are vulnerable. You are in pain, you have accident-related expenses, and you may be out of work. The insurer may try to delay your personal settlement and attempt to get you to settle for less than your case is worth.
You can overcome the insurance company’s delay tactics by hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer. Insurance companies that do business in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois know that Hupy and Abraham personal injury attorneys mean business. We aren’t afraid to go to trial to get our clients fair compensation. Accordingly, insurers are often willing to settle our clients’ claims to avoid the uncertainty and costs of trial.
Once you hire us, our legal team will handle all communication and negotiation with the insurance company. You won’t have to worry about getting a hold of the insurance adjuster or making a mistake when you reach an insurance company representative.
Please contact us today to schedule a free consultation. Not only is your initial consultation free, but our Win or It’s Free Guarantee means that we are only paid if your claim is successful and you won’t pay us any hourly fees. We would be happy to meet with you in one of our 11 Wisconsin, Illinois, or Iowa offices, in your home or hospital room, or by phone or video conference.
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