After a claimant has submitted a complaint with a given insurance company, an adjuster at the same company gets assigned to that claim. That means that it has become the adjuster’s job to investigate the submitted claim.
The adjuster’s challenging task
Adjusters need to investigate any claim that the insurer assigns to them. After completing that investigation, the adjusters’ task involves arriving at an estimate of the claim’s worth. Then, based on that worth, each adjuster must strive to achieve 2 specific goals.
The first goal concerns getting the claimant to accept the lowest possible settlement offer. In order to achieve the second goal, the challenged adjuster needs to reach a negotiated settlement as quickly as possible.
Factors studied by all adjusters
• The number and size of the claimant’s medical bills
• The size of the lost income
• The amount of pain and suffering caused by the reported injury
• The injury’s negative effects
• The limits on the claimant’s insurance policy
• The strength of the case that has been put forward by the claimant being investigated
A useful strategy for all claimants
Hire a lawyer: That shows an awareness of the rights possessed by each injured accident victim. Arrange for the treating doctor’s medical records to show the full extent of the injury.
Personal Injury Lawyer in Ottawa will send a demand letter to the insurance company of the party that is responsible for the accident. That should state the amount of money being asked as compensation. For that reason, the demand letter serves as the action that starts the negotiating process. Have in mind a minimum acceptable offer. That minimum should not be the same figure that has been stated in the demand letter.
What is the purpose of the minimum acceptable offer?
That serves as a way to judge the acceptability of the adjuster’s offer. Still, claimants should not hesitate to change that minimum acceptable offer, when the right set of circumstances has arisen. If the adjuster responds to the demand letter by proposing an amount that is close to the envisioned minimum, then the writer of the letter (claimant) should increase the amount of the lowest acceptable offer. Yet claimants need to use a different approach, if the adjuster’s response contains a newer and stronger argument.
In that case, the claimant’s envisioned, lowest agreeable offer should be reduced. The points mentioned in the response have indicated the weak nature of the presented argument. Realize though, that some adjusters try to trick the negotiating claimant by introducing a low-ball figure.
In that case, the claimant’s response should take the form of a request for an explanation. Then, based on that explanation, a reasonable figure should be presented, in hopes of receiving a suitable counteroffer.
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