What do you think the insurance company will offer me for my injury case?
A lot of times clients ask me that question after we send all the records over to the insurance company.
It’s a legitimate question.
Clients want to know what I think the value of their case is.
That I can tell them.
What I cannot tell them is what the insurance company is going to offer to settle the case.
I’m notoriously bad at that.
Sometimes I think the insurance company is going to make a very low offer on the case because of limited treatment.
Then they come in and offer a substantial amount of money.
Other times I feel that the case is worth a lot in settlement value.
Lo and behold we get a call from the insurance company making a relatively low offer for the case.
What the insurance company uses to evaluate the case is completely different than what we use to value the case.
The insurance company starts with trying to find ways NOT to give much $$ for your case.
So they will find that a client who injured her knee in our case had some prior issues with her knee 3 years ago.
This is very common especially if our client is older.
Who hasn’t had knee back or neck problems by the time they reach their 50s and 60s?
The answer is no one.
And who really cares if 3 years ago you treated for a knee injury?
Well the insurance companies do and they try to latch onto that.
So they will say things like well Pittsburgh car accident attorney Bernie Tully your client had prior knee problems right?
You can see the phone conversation is going to get heated at this point.
I will often reply of course they did but so what that was 3 years ago.
Then they will come back with something like well we want to get every diagnostic test your client ever had in the last 6 years to see whether the injuries she currently has could have been from a different accident long ago.
It is ridiculous argument.
However the key is not to become emotionally involved in it.
What I found the best thing to do in dealing with the insurance company is to let them play their game.
They can get every diagnostic test the client had in the last 6 years and have their doctor look at it and evaluate it.
They are entitled to that later on anyway if a lawsuit is filed.
But at the end of the day when they are evaluating whether they want to settle the case or not and they roundtable your case for what to offer, it comes back to the same thing.
What would a jury likely give Pittsburgh car accident attorney Bernie Tully’s client for her injuries?
So as you can see one part of the Insurance negotiation game is used for posturing.
But the 2nd part involves how much they really are willing to offer you to settle the case.
Our job is to find out what that 2nd part is.
That is what the insurance company is actually going to pay on the claim.
Not what they initially offer to us during the course of negotiations.
In other words the bottom line.
So that’s the strange game played in the injury arena.
And that’s why all attorneys are notoriously bad at telling a client what the insurance company will offer in their case.
The better approach is to let them make the offer and then we will deal with it.
The good news is that I’ve been doing this for over 30 years.
Pittsburgh car accident and insurance settlement evaluator Bernie Tully has quite a bit of experience doing these kind of cases. Therefore we can cut through the game the insurance company wants to play and get to the bottom line.
Pittsburgh car accident and insurance settlement attorney Bernie Tully has only one goal in negotiating with the insurance adjuster.
And that is to get you the most $$ we can for your injuries.
Thanks for reading
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Bernie the attorney.