Is The Insurance Adjuster On My Side?
Dealing with an insurance adjuster is one of the many dangerous obstacles that you have to deal with if you incur a personal injury as a victim of a car accident. The best way to deal with an adjuster is to consult with someone who is on your side: a California personal injury lawyer. The insurance adjuster is not your friend. The insurance adjuster does not work for you. The insurance adjuster gets paid, promoted, and bonuses by saving money for the insurance company, not you.
Insurance Adjusters Prevent You From Getting What You Deserve on Your Accident Injury Claim
Remember, insurance companies are for profit organizations whose sole purpose is to make as much money as possible for their shareholders. Every dollar that an insurance company saves by holding back on your claim is a full dollar profit for the insurance company. Therefore, as an employee of the insurance company, the adjuster's primary responsibility is to make money for his company by holding back every last penny that he/she possibly can from your claim. No matter what they say or how nice they seem, adjusters do not care about fairness or you getting your due or who is really liable.
In fact, insurance adjusters are thoroughly trained and provided with specific directions to do anything and everything within their means to hold back every last penny from your personal injury claim. Additionally they are taught a whole bag of tricks and maneuvers to help them perform their task as well as they possibly can. The "nice guy" act is simply one of the tricks to make them seem friendly and trustworthy so that they can get you to divulge as much information as possible out of you. All the information they get from you can be used against you during your settlement. Among other things, my book The Seven Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Personal Injury Claim provides many such examples of insurance adjusters and their bag of tricks in action.
Do Not Divulge Information Without Consulting With a Personal Injury Lawyer
Some other tricks that insurance adjusters employ include recording your statement, which they can later use out of context. Or you may say something that may not even mean anything to you at the time, but adjusters can twist it around and use it against you. You should refrain from permitting recordings of your statements unless you have consulted with your California accident lawyer. You should also refrain from granting access to your past records without consulting with an attorney. Once insurance companies have access, they will go to unbelievable lengths in order to dig up every possible piece of information to try to disqualify a person from getting their due in claims.
Studies by insurance companies show that personal injury parties that employ the services of a California car accident lawyer receive much more in settlement than those who do not (even after the legal fees have been paid). Of course that makes sense because it is hard for the average person to be prepared to face an adjuster who makes a living advocating for the insurance company. Since the insurance company has someone heavily trained in the matter fighting for them, you would be wise to do the same. So in the unfortunate event that you are faced with having to deal with an insurance adjustor, please do yourself a favor by consulting a car accident attorney who has your best interests in mind.
For more information on how to deal with an insurance adjuster or how handle your own car accident claim, please visit our "Do It Yourself Car Accident Claim" page.
