Personal injury lawyers often hear this question from a client: How much is my case work? Few clients realize the extent to which an insurance company can affect the outcome for a personal injury settlement.
Questions asked by insurance company, after getting word about a claim:
Does the responsible party have insurance? What are the limits on that person’s policy? It could be that the other party’s insurance lacks the ability to cover the costs that have arisen, due to the nature of the victim’s injuries. What sort of coverage does our policy holder have? Has he or she purchased uninsured coverage. Has he or she purchased a provision that covers damage caused by an underinsured motorist? If the policy holder did not buy such a provision, does he or she have some type of health insurance?
The role of the adjuster:
The adjuster looks at the risk to the insurance company, if the case goes to trial. Adjusters push a claimant to accept an early settlement, if they feel that the plaintiff could win a large award, if the case were to go to trial. The adjuster looks at the amount of coverage held by the responsible party. That information reveals the size of the adjuster’s resource, when negotiating with the responsible party. When adjusters have a good-sized resource, the length of the negotiations could get extended. Those adjusters have more money to play with.
The extent of the adjuster’s awareness of the risk to the insurance company plays a part in determining the outcome for a personal injury settlement. In other words, a claimant has the advantage, if a lawsuit gets filed before the adjuster learns much about the claimant’s case.
The effect of details that relate to the claimant’s injury
If the adjuster’s investigations show that the claimant has a pre-existing condition, it would become the adjuster’s responsibility to try linking that condition to the injury. Depending on the adjuster’s tactics, that approach might cause the Personal Injury Lawyer in Kitchener to doubt the strength of their case. Their doubt might cause them to agree to an early settlement.
There are other factors that could work against the effort to push for an early settlement. For instance, there could be a highly believable witness, such as an expert on the plaintiff’s condition. It is also possible that the plaintiff appears ready to be a strong witness. The existence of those factors could persuade the plaintiff’s lawyers to schedule a trial. In that case, the judge and jury would decide on the award for the plaintiff. The insurance company would have only a limited ability to determine the size of the package that would be awarded to the plaintiff.