If you have filed a personal injury claim, then you should expect to take part in negotiations with an insurance adjuster.
How does the process start?
Working with a lawyer, you, as the claimant, need to send a demand letter to the adjuster. It should state the strengths and weaknesses of your claim. The adjuster’s response arrives; it should contain an opening offer.
You and your personal injury lawyer in London may study the offer that has been presented; then you send a counteroffer. The sending of offers and counteroffers must be repeated, using new figures, until both sides have agreed on one figure.
How to make sure that the negotiation process keeps moving forward?
Claimants should have a minimum settlement figure in their mind. That should be the bottom line for each of them, necessitating a refusal to accept any lower bid/offer.
–If new facts were to make the claimant’s claim weaker, then that bottom figure would need to be lowered.
–If the opening bid were close to the claimant’s bottom line, then that particular figure would have to be increased.
Claimants should refuse to become concerned following the possible arrival of a reservation letter. Insurance companies send that piece of communication to emphasize their freedom from any obligation to cover accident, pending the results of further investigations.
Claimant’s smart response to a low opening bid could also help to keep the process moving forward. That response ought to take the form of a letter, one that includes a request for justification of the low figure that has been offered. It becomes the claimant’s job to seek an answer to that specific request during next phone conversation with letter’s recipient (the adjuster).
Once the 2 negotiating parties have agreed on a settlement figure, during a phone conversation, then the claimant should ask that the discussed terms be spelled out in a written document. In addition, the expected date for delivery to the claimant’s attorney of promised funds should be requested.
The insurance company should mail that requested document to the claimant’s lawyer. The package containing that document might have some added material. It is something else that keeps the process moving.
Personal Injury Lawyers in London appreciate the value of the exchanged documents at this stage of the process. An insurance company would probably send its write-up of settlement terms in the company of a release form. The personal injury lawyer that was receiving such a form would know that it should have the claimant’s signature.
Insurance companies do not guarantee delivery of any promised compensation until after receipt of a signed release form. That should free them from any concerns, regarding chances that a claimant’s new symptoms, or unexpected complications might become the insurer’s responsibility.