Bodily Injury Settlement Process

[ecmst12]

Threatening to hire a lawyer will not get a reaction out of your adjuster. The response will be, go right ahead and have your lawyer call me. He or she may be glad to not have to deal with you any more.

If you get an offer and THEN consult a lawyer, you can ask the lawyer if he will take his fee from the amount over the original offer that he can get you only. But NOT 50-60%, unless you want to rip yourself off! The standard 33-40% is what you should expect to pay. It is not uncommon to agree only to pay the fee on the increased amount (if any) that the lawyer is able to get you.

 

[mistaP]

Thanks for the advice. Looks like I'll be emailing the claims adjuster tomorrow. I'll update later.

 

[steel9]

If the adjuster offers you 5k & you then get a lawyer you may end up with the same amount (5k) or even less. It happens often. Im not sure how much more (if any) that i would of received if i had retained a lawyer. Soft tissue injuries usually dont warrant large settlements.

 

[svchivago]

This is a good educational post for me. As I state before, my wife had an accident and her injury is much worse than this. I was wondering how much to ask is a fair compensation. Thanks to OP and all responses.

BTW, how do I find out what is the limit on the at fault party's insurance? The adjuster does not tell me.

 

[ecmst12]

You start your OWN thread instead of hijacking someone else's.

 

[mistaP]

Update

I emailed adjuster to acknowledge his rejection of my demand and offered to entertain a counter. He declined to counter because of the unreasonable demand.

However, the initial offer he made was based on an incomplete review of the record. 11,750 (ballpark) for 2200 meds and 5000 wages. Since I made such a high demand (135k) he is now balking at making an offer that reflects the totality of the claim: 4500 meds and 14800 wages. Is it unreasonable to expect a new offer that accounts for all the costs?

If I submit a formal letter of demand detailing my reasoning, including pictures of injuries and scarring on my head / arm, and a daily journal documenting the pain and suffering, is it likely to have any effect?

I offered to do this and he requested that I do so.

 

[Isis1]

I emailed adjuster to acknowledge his rejection of my demand and offered to entertain a counter. He declined to counter because of the unreasonable demand.

However, the initial offer he made was based on an incomplete review of the record. 11,750 (ballpark) for 2200 meds and 5000 wages. Since I made such a high demand (135k) he is now balking at making an offer that reflects the totality of the claim: 4500 meds and 14800 wages. Is it unreasonable to expect a new offer that accounts for all the costs?

If I submit a formal letter of demand detailing my reasoning, including pictures of injuries and scarring on my head / arm, and a daily journal documenting the pain and suffering, is it likely to have any effect?

I offered to do this and he requested that I do so.

you'll get a response with that letter of reasoning AND lowering your 135K settlement offer.

 

[mistaP]

is that not the equivalent of bidding against myself? Is this a tactic that you would utilize?

Is it unreasonable for me to expect a new offer that accounts for all of the costs, regardless of my demand?

 

[ecmst12]

Dude, you're obviously not willing to listen to reason from the adjuster OR anyone here. Get a lawyer.

 

[Isis1]

is that not the equivalent of bidding against myself? Is this a tactic that you would utilize?

Is it unreasonable for me to expect a new offer that accounts for all of the costs, regardless of my demand?

ditto to ecmst.

dude, you screwed up that "tactic" when you asked for 135k. you need to do damage control. so get an attorney to do it for you.

 

[mistaP]

What is unreasonable about expecting the adjuster to give me an offer based upon all of the costs associated with the claim? Perhaps I was not clear when I described the "snafu". Midway through the time I missed from work, there was a change of personnel in my company's HR. I was unaware of this, and apparently the replacement dropped the ball on informing the adjuster of the rest of my lost wages. THIS HAS SINCE BEEN RECTIFIED AND THE ADJUSTER HAS ACCEPTED THE CLAIM AS VALID.

As for the meds, my insurance paid ALL of my bills (4400) , but adjuster claimed he was only aware of 2200. My insurance assured me that they subrogated for their payments on my behalf ($4400).

Now that the adjuster has all of the info, why should he not make an offer that reflects such?

 

[ecmst12]

Because he doesn't have to.

 

[mistaP]

ditto to ecmst.

dude, you screwed up that "tactic" when you asked for 135k. you need to do damage control. so get an attorney to do it for you.

I'm not pretending to know-it-all. But, what about issuing a demand was screwed up? I don't know what type of people you all are accustomed to dealing with, but all of my inquiries are bona fide, and I'm just looking for some help.

 

[Isis1]

I'm not pretending to know-it-all. But, what about issuing a demand was screwed up? I don't know what type of people you all are accustomed to dealing with, but all of my inquiries are bona fide, and I'm just looking for some help.

get an attorney!! you NEED an attorney!! no one on this board is going to help you with what you already screwed up.

 

[ecmst12]

Technically he has made a counter offer. His counter offer was $0.