What Can I Do If the Insurance Company Is Lowballing Me?

If you have suffered any type of injury, you deserve fair and complete compensation tailored to your situation’s severity. Unfortunately, many insurers try to take advantage of the fact that most people do not know the true value of their claim and try to lower the amount of compensation they must pay. You and your loved ones don’t have to accept low offers, and you should never settle for an insurer’s first offer.

Compensation obtained through a personal injury lawsuit aims to repair the damages incurred by the plaintiff, which means that your compensation should, in principle, place you as close as possible to your situation before the accident. With this in mind, a personal injury award must account for financial and emotional damages.

In order to reduce your compensation amount, an insurer’s adjuster may tell you that they only have to cover a part of your treatment or that they should not cover monetary losses related to, for example, vacation days that you have to use for your medical visits. These are some of the dishonest tactics an adjuster may try to use to cover up the fact that they are 100% responsible for the damages you suffered in an accident.

You only have one chance to negotiate and get fair compensation. During this process, you must remain calm and follow the tips below:

• Review the policy: Review the terms of the policy you’re claiming and make sure the adjuster doesn’t omit or change anything that should be covered.
• Ask them why they offer you an amount, what damages are included and excluded, and the reason for these decisions.
• Always have evidence on hand: In addition to invoices, receipts, and estimates (which the expert should already have), consider having X-rays, photographs of the incident scene, and, if available, liability statements from the cause of your damages.
• Negotiate your first offer: It’s crucial that you don’t just formally reject a low offer, as this gives the insurer room to not compensate you at all. Instead, submit a written counteroffer backed by as detailed documentation of your damages as possible.

About the Author

Yosi Yahoudai is a founder and the managing partner of J&Y. His practice is comprised primarily of cases involving automobile and motorcycle accidents, but he also represents people in premises liability lawsuits, including suits alleging dangerous conditions of public property, third-party criminal conduct, and intentional torts. He also has expertise in cases involving product defects, dog bites, elder abuse, and sexual assault. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California and is admitted to practice in all California State Courts, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. If you have any questions about this article, you can contact Yosi by clicking here.