You Hire An Experienced Personal Injury Attorney To Do It For You, That’s How
If you’re reading this post looking for tips on how to negotiate a personal injury settlement, we’ll make it simple for you: don’t do it. At least, don’t try to negotiate a personal injury settlement in Colorado Springs without an attorney. Because if you do so, you’ll likely leave thousands of dollars on the table instead of putting it in your pocket.
Insurance Companies Negotiate Settlements Every Day. You Don’t.
The fact is that you do not negotiate settlements every day – but insurance companies do. It’s because they handle personal injury claims daily that they know you need money after you suffer injuries and losses in an accident, especially when the accident prevents you from returning to work. The insurer also recognizes that you may not understand your rights or the value of your claim – and they will take advantage of that naivety to offer you a settlement amount far less than what you deserve.
Insurance companies are in the business of making money for their shareholders. When they need to negotiate a personal injury settlement, the insurer calls on experienced attorneys and claims adjusters, who know that every dollar paid out in settlements is one dollar that comes out of the company’s profits. It is no wonder that they will pull out every trick in the book to manipulate, cajole, and even intimidate you into taking a lowball settlement offer in exchange for signing away your rights.
Underhanded Insurance Company Tactics Won’t Fool Your Personal Injury Attorney
The deceptive practices insurance companies use against you are exactly why you should not try to negotiate a personal injury settlement without an experienced personal injury attorney on your side. Like the insurance company, your attorney negotiates personal injury settlements for a living. This experience means that personal injury lawyers know the tactics insurers use to get out of claims on the cheap and are immune to those efforts. Because your attorney will have done their homework about your accident and injuries, you can rely on them to make it clear to the insurer that you have a strong and valuable claim.
If the insurer refuses to step up and make a settlement offer that reflects the value of your case, your attorney will be ready to aggressively pursue compensation for your injuries all the way through trial. Taking a personal injury case through a trial is expensive for defendants and the insurance companies that pay for their defense. Since insurance companies’ primary goal is to make money and resolve claims as cheaply as possible, the prospect of expensive litigation and an uncertain outcome often leads to a much more significant settlement offer during negotiations with your attorney.
What Is A Personal Injury Settlement?
So, the right question isn’t how you negotiate a personal injury settlement; it is how your personal injury attorney does so.
As a preliminary matter, a personal injury settlement in Colorado is an agreement between the plaintiff (the injury victim) and the defendant (the party responsible for the accident and injury) in which the defendant pays a specific amount to the plaintiff in exchange for waiving your claims and dismissing any pending lawsuit. In most personal injury cases, particularly in Colorado Springs car accident lawsuits, the defendant is not the one that actually pays the settlement; that money comes from the defendant’s insurance company.
How Your Attorney Negotiates a Personal Injury Settlement
After an accident, each driver will tell their own insurance company about the accident and provide their insurer with the other driver’s name, contact, and insurance information (which is why you need to get that information right after an accident).
Lawyers hired by the other driver’s car insurance company will represent that driver and handle all matters related to your claim. When you are contacted by representatives of the insurance company to discuss your claim, you should immediately direct them to your attorney, if your attorney hasn’t already been in touch with them.
If you have not yet hired an attorney to represent you, read our tips for hiring a personal injury attorney.
Your personal injury attorney will begin negotiations with the insurer before even filing an injury lawsuit. While some matters do get resolved at this early stage, it is more likely that your attorney will file a personal injury lawsuit as part of their efforts to obtain a reasonable and appropriate settlement offer. The parties can continue to negotiate throughout the litigation process; sometimes, they may reach an agreement after a trial has already started.
At every stage in negotiations, each side will assert that they have a strong case based on the facts, evidence, and the law in Colorado. As the case progresses, new testimony or evidence may strengthen one side’s position and weaken the other side. Such developments often move the needle on negotiations and lead to a settlement.
Your personal injury attorney and the insurance company’s lawyers may also attempt to resolve your claim through mediation. This process involves the participation of a specially trained, neutral third party who works with both sides in an effort to bring about a mutually acceptable agreement.
If the parties do reach a settlement, the insurance company will write a check in exchange for you giving up your claim. Your attorney will take their fees and expenses out of that amount, and some proceeds may go to doctors and others who treated you for injuries you sustained in your accident. The rest of the settlement amount will go to you.
Click for more information on how personal injury settlements are paid out.
Need To Negotiate a Personal Injury Settlement? Contact King & Beaty Today.
The experienced and tenacious Colorado Springs injury attorneys at King & Beaty negotiate personal injury settlements every day. We have helped countless clients on the Front Range get the compensation they deserve and need to move forward with their lives. And, you pay nothing in attorneys’ unless we recover money for you. We welcome the opportunity to speak with you about your accident. Contact us today for your free, confidential initial consultation.
