If you have been injured in a terrible car accident, the worst of your trauma might be behind you, but the hard times are far from over. Unfortunately, while the personal injury system exists to obtain personal injury compensation, the insurance company paying for it will try to undermine you at every turn. This article explains what to expect from them and what to do, or not, after a Maryland accident and injury, including:
- The risks of speaking with the at-fault insurance company after an accident in Baltimore.
- Why you should never take an immediate offer from an insurance company.
- The tactics insurance companies will use to undermine your claim and how to beat them.
What Can I Expect From The At-Fault Party’s Insurance Company After A Personal Injury Claim Is Filed In Baltimore County?
After an accident that was not your fault in which you endured injuries, Maryland law allows you to file a personal injury claim to obtain financial compensation from the guilty party or their insurance provider for those losses and harms you suffered as a result of the injury.
Unfortunately, insurance companies are not actually inclined to pay you anything and will do everything in their power to pay you as little as possible. That is, after all, how they make money. As a result, you can expect very little cooperation and opposition at every turn.
Most notably, insurance companies will often go out of their way to investigate your claim. They will even go as far as hiring private investigators to follow injured accident victims. All of these tactics are designed to give them an excuse or reason to deny your claim or get you to settle the claim for minimal value. As a result, you should avoid sharing anything with the opposing insurance company before consulting with an attorney.
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What Are The Risks Of Communication With The Insurance Company?
An insurance company’s goal is ultimately to pay you as little as possible – no matter what they say or do, they are not your friend. As such, you should avoid conversations with the opposing insurance company because you run the risk of having them get a statement from you that could be used against you later on at trial.
If you give adjusters a statement prior to hiring an attorney, there is nothing your attorney can do to take it back. On the other hand, once you hire an attorney, the insurance company cannot talk to you unless your attorney approves it. This can help protect you from some of their more insidious tactics, such as offering disgracefully low initial offers.
If The Insurance Company Offers A Settlement Right Away, Should I Take It?
Initial insurance company offers are, 99% of the time, far worse than what you can get through a personal injury claim with the help of an attorney. This is why they make these offers in the first place.
Until you know the full extent of your injuries and their impact on your life and work, there is no way to know what your claim is really worth. For this reason, the insurance company would much rather you settle the case early to limit their exposure to financial loss. The result? You‘re likely to lose out on the total amount of compensation that you truly deserve.
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What Are Some Of The Defenses And Tactics Insurance Companies Use To Deny Or Limit Settlements?
Insurance companies will pull out all the stops to limit, delay, or deny your claim. They will hire experts and investigators, they will use your past medical records against you, and they will do anything they can to either limit how much they end up paying out or to convince you to accept less than you deserve.
That is why it is so important that you have someone on your side who can fight back.
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Will The Insurance Company Approach My Case Differently With An Experienced Law Firm On My Side?
Trying to handle your own personal injury claim or approaching an insurance company with an inexperienced attorney is like going swimming in a shark tank with an open wound. They will smell blood in the water. On the other hand, going in with a strong, experienced attorney is like going in with a reinforced steel cage.
Many people don’t know this, but insurance companies keep databases on which attorneys are taking cases to trial and which attorneys are settling cases for minimum value. They know which attorneys are going to fight for their clients and will often settle for much higher values for these attorneys to avoid a prolonged and expensive fight they will inevitably lose.
After all, since all they care about is their profit and bottom line, your attorney can use that against them, too. For more information on Filing A Personal Injury Claim In Maryland, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (410) 680-3617 today.
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