August 2016 Newsletter
This month’s topic of interest: August 2016 INSURANCE COMPANIES FIGHT MAKE UNFAIR SETTLEMENTS
We recently concluded a case where two young people that were injured in a crash that was clearly caused by a non-attentive driver who had a reasonable amount of bodily injury liability coverage. This is the kind of insurance that pays the other party for their past and future medical expenses, past and future loss of income , scarring, pain and suffering and the loss of enjoyment of life.
Our clients were completely reasonable when we sent our demand package to the insurance company to try and settle the case. What happened next is unfortunately typical. The insurance company made two lowball offers to settle the case claiming that:
- Their insured was not at fault.
- Even if she was at fault the injuries were not caused by the crash.
- Even if their insured was at fault and caused the injuries the medical bills were too high, etc etc etc.
They started out offering $628.84 on one case and $1,755.86 on the other case. We had to file a lawsuit and spend a great deal of time and money needlessly, and only then on the eve of trial did the insurance company pony up settlements of $31,250 and $43,750! These are not huge settlements for Meldon Law, but only after our determined effort to make the insurance company do the right thing would they make reasonable offers to settle. Unfortunately, this happens all too frequently.
The insurance industry pays 3.7 times more to settle a case if you are represented by an attorney. They pay even more if you are represented by an attorney who will not fold up the tent and settle for some minimal offer. We know that the insurance companies keep track of which law firms fight for their clients and which ones do not. So when choosing a law firm to represent you, don’t always pick the law firm that advertises the most; choose the law firm that you TRUST! That’s it in a nutshell. Go to battle with someone who is willing to fight for you when the time is right!
