Accidents involving 18-wheelers and other cargo vehicles are among the most devastating of all. They can leave victims horrifically injured and unable to work — possibly forever.
You might think that this makes a claim involving a truck accident a little easier to settle because there's usually no question about the seriousness of your condition. Unfortunately, insurance companies are usually so eager to reduce their losses that they still try to get victims to accept an offer that's unfair.
Here are some of the top signs that an insurance company is low-balling its offer to you:
1. They question what injuries were caused in the wreck.
The insurance company doesn't have to cover your treatment for any injuries unrelated to the accident, so they may try to simultaneously cast doubt on your claim while pushing you to take their early offer. The goal is to get you to question the strength of your case and settle.
For example, the insurance company may dig into your insurance records and discover that you had been treated for a back injury in the past. Then, they may try to use that old injury to say that your current back injuries were actually just a flare-up of your old condition (while ignoring the fact that you were fine until the accident).
2. They make a low offer with no explanation.
Sometimes insurance company adjustors will "throw out a number" and make an offer to settle without any real explanation of how they came up with that precise figure. That's a sure sign that they're hoping you'll accept the money and let them close a claim.
Without an explanation of how the insurance company assigned a value to your claim, you have no real way to evaluate the figure you are given — unless you carefully add up all of your losses yourself. The insurance company is usually betting that the process will be too overwhelming and you'll give in.
3. The settlement offer you get doesn't include everything.
Sometimes the insurance company will conveniently overlook some items when they calculate out what to offer you. For example, they may agree to cover the medical bills you currently have from treatment after the wreck — but offer nothing toward your future medical bills.
This serves two purposes. First, it reduces the amount of money they have to pay for your actual damages. Second, the sum total of your injuries is used to determine how much you get for pain and suffering, which can easily be a huge part of your claim.
Claims involving truck accidents can be incredibly complex. If you or your loved one are injured after a wreck, talk to an 18-wheeler accident attorney today.
