Car Insurance Claims in Illinois

If you or your loved one has had their claim dismissed by a car insurance company, Morgan and Morgan car insurance attorneys might be able to help. Our law firm boasts powerful legal resources to fight for your rights. We have dealt with countless insurance companies and know the tactics they use to avoid paying what they owe.

Let's discuss some of these tactics below.

Common Tactics Car Insurance Companies Use to Deny or Devalue Claims

When you get injured in a car accident caused by another party's negligence, their insurer might use any of the following tactics to deny or undervalue your claim:

Constantly Calling You After an Injury

If the insurance company keeps calling you after the injury, do not think they care so much about you. On the contrary, chances are they are trying to catch you off guard. This is because when you get injured in a car accident, chances are you will not be in a position to make the right decisions.

Insurance companies know this and will likely call you multiple times to convince you to sign a quick settlement. This tactic is also meant to deny you the opportunity to evaluate your injuries.

Certain injuries, such as internal body injuries, usually take time to show. That explains why these companies will try to contact you, hoping you sign a settlement agreement before the full extent of your injuries begins to show.

Offering a Quick Settlement

When the insurer calls you to offer a quick settlement, you will likely think they care so much about you. But that is not always true. The reason for doing this is to ensure you settle for less than the actual value of your claim. When they offer the settlement, they will also have you sign a release of settlement agreement.

A release of settlement agreement, also known as a “release” is a document that absolves the insurance company of the responsibility of compensating the injury victim beyond the settlement that has already been agreed upon.

Say your claim was worth $100,000, and you agree to a quick settlement offer of $10,000. The insurer will have you sign a release of settlement, meaning you cannot turn back and file a new lawsuit against them for the same accident, even if you discover that the settlement was way below what you were entitled to.

This can be heartbreaking, especially if you have medical bills and other expenses to take care of after the accident. There is a possibility that you might sink into debt when you accept a lowball offer from an insurance company after an accident.

For example, if you did not work while recovering from the injury, you will likely not have enough money to pay your bills. Your landlord will not stop asking for rent just because you got injured. The same applies to your credit cards and other important bills.

The only way you may be able to file a new lawsuit against the insurer is if you can prove that the settlement you accepted derived from fraud on the insurer's side. Unfortunately, this is not usually the easiest thing to prove. In fact, some attorneys do not take such cases if the injury victim has already accepted the settlement and signed the release of settlement agreement.

Requesting a Recorded Statement

If the insurer asks you to record a statement, they may be trying to find a reason to blame you for the accident. Naturally, you may think that the insurer wants to ensure that you receive full compensation for your injuries. Or, you will probably think that requesting a recorded statement is part of the compensation process.

Remember, claims adjusters mostly work directly with insurance companies. Even if they sound friendly on the phone, they will always put the insurer's interests first. This could mean tricking you into revealing information you should not reveal, especially without the help of an attorney.

For example, the claims adjusters might ask you how you feel after the accident. This sounds like an innocent question from someone who cares about you. In fact, chances are you will feel loved and appreciated, especially after an accident.

But did you know that this could also be a trick question designed to make you reveal things you should not? For instance, if you say that you are feeling fine and then later develop complications due to the accident, the insurance report will show that you actually said you felt okay after the accident.

Even though insurance companies know that certain injuries take time to show their symptoms, they will still use our statements against you. And if they cannot succeed at dismissing the entire claim, they will at least find a way to devalue it.

Using Delay Tactics

Delay tactics can lead you to accept settlement offers that do not match the actual value of your injuries. Here is how it works:

When you have a claim with the insurer, they might not process it immediately. Rather, they will delay the process, citing different reasons. While doing so, they will hope that you reach the point of desperation where you would be willing to accept just any settlement offer. And as mentioned before, they will convince you to sign the settlement agreement, absolving them from further liability.

Disputing Treatment

This is usually the coldest tactic insurance providers use to avoid paying what they owe an injury victim. Let's say you are injured in a car accident and require multiple surgeries. After the surgery, the doctor might recommend additional treatment such as physical therapy.

For this reason, the at-fault party's insurance will not want you to receive further treatment. This is because additional treatment requires more money, one thing they would love to avoid.

To evade spending more money on treatment, some insurance companies even hire a team of doctors to study the injuries and establish why the victim does not deserve the prescribed treatment. This is heartless, but the truth is that insurance companies do not care.

They will do anything to protect their interests. In this case, their primary interest is to reduce their spending.