The majority of car accident claims and lawsuits get settled out of court. Settlement offers many benefits, including faster money and a quicker resolution. But you should not agree to the first offer from the insurance company right away. Rather, you must know the true worth of your injuries and take advantage of the facts. This is where attorney Alex Freeburg can assist you. Your attorney will calculate the value of your claim by doing the following.
Analyze Your Accident Injuries
To determine if a settlement offer from the insurer is reasonable and fair, you must know the worth of your injuries. If you don’t calculate this, you will just accept whatever offer the insurer makes. To know the worth of your injuries, add your economic losses up. These losses are money you spent to handle the impacts of the crash, including medical bills, lost wages, rehab costs, property damage, and lost future wages.
Gather medical bills, car repair estimates, and pay stubs and total the amounts. The total is the estimate of your economic losses. Then, analyze your economic damages like pain and suffering, reduced quality of life, emotional distress, physical impairment, and disfigurement. These intangible injuries are hard to translate into dollars since there are no receipts to use. Your attorney can convert put a dollar value to these losses.
Compare the Settlement Offer to the Worth of Your Injuries
After comparing the numbers, you may see a huge gap between them. Insurance adjusters are notorious for lowballing claimants. But you or your attorney can always negotiate.
Read the settlement letter from the insurer and focus on the reasons provided to support their offer. For instance, the insurance adjuster might believe you share responsibility for the crash or that the injuries you sustained are not as severe as you claim. Counter these reasons and give evidence.
Make a Counteroffer
When you reject the insurance company’s settlement offer, you must also provide reasons why. If the adjuster believes you contributed to the crash, clarify for them what truly occurred. Do not hesitate to correct misstatements and errors that the letter of the adjuster may contain.
Also, you need to counteroffer with a dollar amount. You should discuss this with your lawyer since they know the true value of your claim. Your attorney can do back-and-forth negotiations with the insurance company until you get a fair settlement. If negotiations fail, your attorney can take your case to court.
