We’ve all seen the commercials about how your insurance company is there for you the moment you’re in a car accident. But if that’s true, then why is there a need for personal injury attorneys to exist at all? It’s a question that many Bellingham car accident victims find easy answers to during their own experience after the crash. That is, unfortunately, a very rude awakening for those who have been diligently paying their premiums for years.
Insurance companies spend time and resources training their claims adjusters to pay as little as possible on as few claims as possible. This makes sense, because they would not exist as a successful for-profit company if they didn’t carefully watch their bottom line. Any claim that reaches an adjuster’s desk will be immediately challenged. Adjusters challenge a claim on its validity and value. In essence, an insurance adjuster is paid to work against your financial interests.
That is usually good enough reason for accident victims to seek out a top personal injury attorney in Bellingham for advice. But here’s one more: have you read verbatim your insurance policy? Obviously, your insurer has, and so has his or her team of in-house attorneys. In fact, they wrote it. Also, you’re filing a claim because you’ve been in an accident of some kind. Especially with the most common kinds of accidents – car crashes – you or a loved one has likely been injured or killed. The stress and strain of negotiating a claim even under the best of circumstances is hard on someone not trained in this process.
It helps to have someone on your side, especially when thousands of dollars – or more – is at stake. With a personal injury attorney, accident victims can protect their legal interest in fighting for fair compensation for their losses. Bill Coats Law helps accident victims in Bellingham and Whatcom County by protecting them during negotiations with an insurance company claims adjuster.
What is an Insurance Adjuster?
Insurance adjusters are agents of an insurance company that investigate submitted claims. Because they cannot take the documentation or word of the plaintiff as truth, insurance companies look to these agents to look into all claims submitted and make sure they are legitimate. They collect facts and data, and help the insurer determine the size of the settlement.
Insurance adjusters are not always employees of the insurance company. Typically, insurance adjusters are members of the company’s staff of adjusters, and is therefore a direct employee of the company. Also, independent adjusters can weigh in during the claim settlement process. They are sometimes employed by both the insurance company and a claimant. Lastly, there are public adjusters that are typically employed by a claimant. These various perspectives ensure that a claim is being evaluated accurately and in an unbiased manner as much as humanly possible.
How do insurance company’s adjusters figure out how much a claim is worth? They process the claim through a series of methods to reach the same end goal – pay as little as possible.
What happens during an insurance adjuster’s investigation?
Insurance adjusters will look into all aspects of your claim and the circumstances that lead to it, leaving no stone unturned. They will be focused on documentation and be surprisingly hands on for some claims. They may interview witnesses in person, and take their statements, speak to emergency responders, and visit accident sites to inspect them personally in order to decide how much a claim is worth. They may even visit your social media sites to evaluate if your lifestyle represented there matches the medical problems your claim includes.
For more, click on Part 2!