How To Negotiate A Settlement With An Insurance Claims Adjuster

If you have recently been involved in a car accident and desire to get compensation through an insurance claim, you must learn how to negotiate a settlement with an insurance claims adjuster. If you are about going through the negotiation process and have never dealt with any of them before or your first time generally, you must admit that it might become frustrating and filled with anxiety.

You might find yourself searching the internet with keywords like negotiating insurance settlement or how to negotiate with an insurance adjuster. The truth is you might be lucky enough to find some useful piece of information that would help you when dealing with an insurance claims adjuster. Still, the best advice that we can leave with you is for you to have a legal representative on your side to fight for your rights.

How To Negotiate A Settlement With An Insurance Claims Adjuster

Knowing Where To File An Insurance Claim

The first step towards negotiating a settlement with an insurance claims adjuster is knowing the right time to file a claim and also where to file a claim. Business owners and drivers are required to have insurance, and if you have suffered injuries or damages, then the first step to take towards negotiations is filing an insurance claim. Depending on the type of accident and where the accident happened, there are a couple of options open to you for filing an insurance claim.

If, for example, you were involved in a car accident, then you might likely want to file a first-party insurance claim with your own insurer, or you end up filing a third-party insurance claim with the insurance company of the other driver.

If you were involved in a slip and fall accident at your local business, you would file an insurance claim with the business insurance company. Regardless of where you file this claim, what you should understand is the insurance company isn’t your advocate.

Send A Demand Letter Across

After filing an insurance claim, you can draft out a demand letter you would use once the settlement process begins. Your demand letter should also contain all of the damages that you have suffered, and they should not be limited to

• Pain and suffering
• Property damage
• Lost wages
• Medical bills

It falls to the insurance company to take steps to compensate for all of the victim’s losses. These steps would start with investigating all of the damages and the claims you outlined in your demand letter. The claimant, at this point, would wait patiently for the insurance adjuster to table a settlement offer. If the insurance company fails to make the right steps towards offering a settlement, the claimant can go ahead and sue the insurance company for bad faith.

Knowing That The Claims Adjuster Isn’t On Your Side

If you are in the process of filing a claim and holding out for a settlement, then what you should also have at the back of your mind is that the insurance companies are there for profits, just like every other business organization. Let us be clear on this; insurance companies are not there to advocate for policyholders, which is why it is essential for anyone who files a claim to know that the insurance claims adjuster is not on their side.

The earlier you understand that an insurance claims adjuster isn’t working for you then the earlier you would be able to take steps to ensure you get what you want from the insurance company. You should be able to hold out for a settlement offer that would cover up all of your damages because every insurance adjuster’s goal is to make sure its company pays a claimant a small amount of money as compensation.

Insurance adjusters sometimes take steps within the law to frustrate the claimant, while others, in some cases, tend to engage in bad faith so as not to make a reasonable offer.

Getting A Settlement Off And Making A Counter Offer

After a period of time, a claimant might get a settlement offer. In most cases, you should not accept the first offer; instead, what you are supposed to do is work with an attorney or lawyer who would help negotiate a better settlement offer for you. A fair settlement offer should be enough to cover all the injuries and damages outlined in your demand letter.