Insurer hates Questions
There are some questions about insurance that insurance providers do not want you to ask in personal injury claims and other types of claims.
The
first question that insurance claims adjusters don't want you to ask is;
What
are the insurance limits in the case?
In fact health insurance companies would try to evade these set of queries. They
don't want you to ask this question because it shows that you may be trying to
get the insurance limits and that you're savvier than just an average claimant
and more intelligent than them. If insurance companies can do so, they want to
avoid paying out the limits and pay as little as possible. Another question;
How
much check-writing authority do they have?
You're
essentially asking them; how much can they write a check for without having to
get supervisor approval. They may not want to answer that question because you
may think the value of your case is above their check-writing authority, and if
that was the case, you'd need a new adjuster assigned and they want to keep
their file.
The third question; what is the settlement
reserve?
The
reserve is an amount of money that an insurance company, an insurance adjuster
sets aside to pay your case. They don't want to be asked that because then you
have a better idea of how much they think your case may be worth. In fact, private health insurance in USA is an industrial unit; they want to earn more for their return on capital employed or on its equity; to secure a better place in the industry.
The fourth question;
How much have
they paid in past for claimants’ pain?
Insurance
companies keep very specific files that show how much they've paid for pain and
suffering for certain injuries. You're not going to have access to those, and
if you ask the insurance adjuster how much he's paid in the past for pain and
suffering for your same injury, he's not going to tell you, and if he does tell
you, rest assured that the number that he gives you is going to be much lower
than what he's paid because they rarely like to show their hand. The best thing
that you can do would be to look up past settlements and verdicts using a jury
verdict search reporter. That's not going to give you the exact settlements and
verdicts with that particular insurance company. It's going to give you a ballpark
value of the pain and suffering component of many different types of injuries,
which you hopefully use to your advantage.
The fifth question; how much have you offered to a claimant like myself, and then awarded higher for injury?
For the
sake of assurance; there is no insurance company in Florida that has had a case
where they haven't made an offer and at some point had a personal injury
claimant go to trial and get a verdict in judgment for higher than that amount.
But there's going to be a slim chance that the insurance adjuster tells you
which cases happened. Insurance adjusters are not always right with their
offers and the valuations of your claim. That's why sometimes at a trial they
get hit for large amounts.
The sixth question; how many times have you paid a claimant higher amount than your last final offer was?
If you
ask them that question, you're generally going to get the response. Speaking
with my supervisor is not going to do any good. You're going to hear the same
thing. But there are certain times, and it happens often, where the supervisor
just has more settlement authority and he may just want to get the file off the
desk and closed, and he may award more money.
There's
never a guarantee it can happen all the time, but the supervisor is a
compelling word.
The seventh question; what are the bad
facts for your case?
Many
facts go into a personal injury case and many things affect the value.
Witnesses are one of them. There's a chance the insurance company knows about a
witness that's horrible for their defense, such as someone who thinks they're
insured with speeding or someone who saw a substance on the floor a long time
before you slipped and fell. Ask the adjuster what are the worst facts in your
case. You're going to get a good idea of how many cards the adjuster is showing
you.
The eighth question, does your insurance company typically increase the
offer when a lawsuit is filed?
They
may say no, they may not be telling you the truth, but the reality is, not in
every case but in many cases, when you file a lawsuit, the case gets
transferred to a different adjuster who has more authority to settle your case,
essentially for more money. It goes to a higher-level adjuster. Sometimes the
reserves get increased. That's the amount of money set aside to pay the claim.
It doesn't always happen. Certain insurance companies stick to their final
offer before a lawsuit, but oftentimes insurance companies, particularly if
they have to pay an outside attorney and they're not one of the large auto
insurers that has their attorneys on staff, will increase an offer after you've
filed the lawsuit.
The
real world case against a very large supermarket and they denied liability which
led to file a lawsuit against the supermarket, what was the substance over form
of the case; the claimant was injured when something fell on her, and as soon
as the lawsuit was filed, the insurance adjuster
had his narrative, "I don't know what the other adjuster "was
thinking, " which we hear this often. And she offered some dollars. Now, the case is sub-judice and way ward towards settling
for more money, but oftentimes insurance companies will not be fair.
Therefore,
a lawsuit becomes the necessity, and the new adjuster will put all the blame on
the pre-suit adjuster, by simply denying the
thinking what was possessed by the insurers,
or the defense attorney that has assigned to the case blame the prior adjuster
who was handling the case. Sometimes a lawsuit can be very lengthy. As this is
also a real world case wherein an individual slipped and fell down. Settlement
case was filed for him by his attorney; which was denied; and thus denied liability.
This thing led to the filing of a lawsuit that ultimately settled the case and
the individual was paid for the same.
Here
the point to realize is just take what insurance adjusters tell you with a
grain of salt.
The ninth question; how much is your
insured at fault?
Insurance companies have insured individuals, who is their clients. The client may ask them;
What percentage of negligence are the
insurance providers placing on your insured?
The Insurance policy provider considers the level of blame if how much lies on the client; a clear percentage is divided between the accidental parties.
Knowing their insurance percentage of fault
helps understand that they are going to make the offer based on their
percentage of fault if is in line with your evaluation. This may be perceived
as if the provider is insured ascertaining the degree of negligence on part of
the insured. It's one of the main factors when evaluating how much your case is
worth.
Insurance adjusters hate your asking for, how much blame are they assigning to you?
They place
% to % blame on the client for not seeing something that might be tripped over
or should have seen before. Sometimes the blame comes to the client for
crossing the road in the middle of the daytime when the client wasn't in a
crosswalk.
As a bonus question, you want to ask the insurer , if you had health
insurance that paid some of your bills, the health insurance is going to have a
right to recover money from your settlement if you reach a personal injury
settlement, or may have a right.
The question arises; What percentage of the health insurance lien are you paying me back for?
See if they're giving you a full reimbursement. The same
is true with your medical bills. In such a case for your medical bills, or
out-of-pocket medical bills:
Are you paying me for % of my medical
bills?
They
may tell you, or they may not.