If you have filed a personal injury claim, the other party must be proven at-fault, in order for the defendant to get saddled with the charge of liability. The liable party must compensate the injured plaintiff.
The first suggested response
Ask the insurance adjuster for proof of the adjuster’s stated position. Look for a statement that gives a statute, a rule or a regulation. Expect to be provided with a printed statement. Statement should include mention of the source. Personal injury lawyer in Kitchener advices that you should not accept a paper that fails to provide the source of the quoted statute, rule or regulation.
The suggested follow-up to that first response
Point to features in the police report that support your allegations. If that report lacks any mention of a time when you got a citation from the officer at the scene of the accident, then you do not appear to be at-fault. If you were not at-fault, then it would seem that the other party ought to be held liable.
Does the police report assign fault to either party? If not, then the adjuster has no strong grounds for saying that you should be held liable.
Significance of above responses
Often, adjusters try denying the liability of the insurance company’s policyholder (the defendant) in an effort to persuade the plaintiff to drop the filed personal injury claim. Plaintiffs that carry out the responses that have been outlined above should convince any adjuster of the same plaintiffs’ unwillingness to drop their filed claim.
If a plaintiff has refused to drop a claim, then the adjuster must continue to negotiate with that same plaintiff. In other words, once completed correctly, responses to a denial of liability can work to keep stalled negotiations going. As long as negotiations continue, the chances for a larger bid from the adjuster become more of a possibility.
Still, if the adjuster has sought to disprove the liability of the insurance company’s policyholder (the defendant), that action reduces the chances for attainment of what would feel like a fair settlement. In other words, the likelihood for a sizable bid from the same adjuster has been reduced.
What does that mean? Does that suggest that the plaintiff could be denied any reward? No, but it does suggest that the size of the granted reward could be an amount of money that is far smaller than the amount that was quoted in the demand letter.
Not all adjusters try this particular trick. An adjuster’s awareness of a policy’s limits can influence a decision, regarding whether or not to proceed with the act of denying a policyholder’s liability. For instance, if the limits are high, then there is lots of money at that same adjuster’s disposal.