Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
How does the insurance claim process work? Well, the first thing you have to know is
that the insurance companies are in the business to make a profit. There’s nothing wrong
with that. But the insurance companies profit is the difference between what they bring
in with premiums and what they pay out in claims. So the insurance adjuster’s job
is to settle your claim for as little as possible after delaying as long as possible. Our job
is to settle your claim for its maximum value with the minimum possible delay. Insurance
companies have developed a huge bureaucracy to fight claims, to sort out bad claims, and
to pay as little as possible. I remember visiting an insurance company claims office in Kirkland.
It was a room as large as a gymnasium, and it was organized like a first grade classroom,
with rows of desks facing the front. And at the front of the room was a glassed-in room
for the teacher. So when the adjuster settled a claim for $10,000, he takes a little file
up to the supervisor in the glassed in room, and the supervisor is likely to say “You
paid too much. This file does not support a $10,000 payment.” But if that same adjuster
settles a claim for $100,000 and brings the supervisor a thick and well-documented file,
that includes complete witness statements, complete medical opinion letters, comprehensive
records of all medical care, wage losses, and all other expenses, the supervisor is
likely to say “Good job. It could’ve been worse.” So our job is to help the insurance
adjuster to build a file that supports a full and fair claim settlement. Our goal is to
maximize your financial recovery. We have a reputation for honest dealing, for fair
but firm settlement posture, for refusing to settle for a penny less than the claim
is worth, and for being prepared to take a claim to trial if necessary to get a full
and fair recovery. Now there are basically five steps the insurance adjuster takes in
handling a personal injury claim: collecting information, setting reserves, evaluating
damages, negotiating a settlement, and defending at trial if necessary. I’m going to go through
those one at a time. First, collecting information: Since the adjuster has to collect information
in order to understand your claim, we provide all the required information to establish
that it’s a valid claim. Sometimes insurance adjusters are so busy looking for damaging
information about you or your claim that they miss favorable information. So we collect
and highlight that favorable information: witness statements, photographs of the accident,
photographs of the injury, opinion letters from experts of medicine, accident reconstruction,
and economic loss. We present the claim to the adjuster, with full evidentiary backing,
so the adjuster understands the significance of your claim. Second: setting reserves. When
a claim comes in, the insurance company has to set reserves, which is an accounting entry,
to ensure government regulators that the company has set aside adequate money to pay the claim.
If initial reserves are set too low, then the time comes to settle and the adjuster
will sometimes be too limited in the amount of money he could offer in settlement. We
like to get the appropriate information to the adjuster as soon as possible to assist
the company in setting high enough claims that the ultimate settlement can be for the
full claim value. The third thing the adjuster does is evaluate damages. Now, since the adjusters
have to evaluate the claim value, we provide them with all the information including comparable
cases from state, regional, and national publications from computerized databases and their own
evaluations for claim value. We don’t just wait for an offer. We help create it. The
fourth step is negotiating settlement. There’s an old saying: “A lawyer who represents
himself is a fool for a client.” Well, likewise, a personal injury victim that attempts to
negotiate a settlement with an insurance adjuster is likely to recover for less that the claims
true value. Do not attempt to negotiate a settlement of your personal injury claim without
professional advice. The fifth stage is defending at trial, if necessary. If a settlement can’t
be negotiated, the insurance company must defend its position in court. Your lawyer
must have a track record of exceptional verdicts so that the insurance company realizes that
trial is not an easy way out. In dealing with the insurance companies, our job is to take
the stress off of our client’s shoulders and put it back where it belongs: on the shoulders
of the insurance company for the negligent party who caused the problem in the first
place. We’ve been doing this for 35 years. Insurance companies know us. They know our
reputation for thorough claim documentation, for compassionate care for our clients, for
fair but firm negotiating and litigating skills. In fact, since insurance companies know how
well prepared we are, over 90% of our claims are settled out of court. We’ve won multiple
million and multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements, and have established record
high verdicts and settlements in several Washington jurisdictions. Anybody can tell you how the
insurance claim process works. We know how it works. We’ve been doing this for 35 years.
If we can help you, contact us, use our free claim evaluation form. If you send it in,
we’ll get back to you by noon of the next business day. We’ll try to answer two questions.
One: Do you have a valid claim? Two: What is my claim likely worth?