After an accident, key aspects of the victim’s injuries determine the amount of money that the insurance company will agree to provide, as a payout to the claimant/victim.
The adjuster focuses on the damages that resulted from the injury-causing accident.
How much money was spent on the diagnosis and treatment of the reported injuries?
Was the injury serious?
—Was it a hard injury, such as a broken bone?
—Was it a soft injury, such as damage to connective tissue?
—Did it cause any long-term effects?
How adjusters use the answers to the questions given above:
Adjusters use a standard formula, one that calls for performance of a multiplication operation
—The total for the medical expenses is one factor in that multiplication operation
—The other factor is a figure called a multiplier. It is a number between 1.5 and 5. For serious injuries, that number is 5 or more.
After obtaining the product of that multiplication operation, adjusters add the value for the claimant’s lost wages. The injury lawyer in Belleville knows that the result is calculated by using the formula serves as an indication of the settlement’s value.
How does the insurance adjuster obtain information on an accident victim’s injury?
A smart victim makes a point of seeking a medical evaluation during the 24- hour period that has followed a given accident. That action should aid creation of a medical report. Adjusters seek permission to view the relevant sections of a victim’s medical report.
Victims that have failed to go after that all-important medical evaluation have no evidence, with respect to the nature and extent of their injuries. The adjuster is almost certainly going to ask such a victim to attend an independent medical examination. (IME).
In what other ways could a victim work to showcase the nature and extent of a given injury?
Lawyers often urge their injured clients to keep a pain journal or diary. That should contain details on the dates and times for any painful sensations. It should also contain information on the duration of each painful sensation.
It could also offer clues to the activity that had helped to trigger the development of pain. That should help with identifying the point for the disappearance of any significant pains.
When would an adjuster feel that an injury had received a sufficient level of treatment? Would that be when the pains had ceased?
No that would be when the treating physician has stated that the patient/victim has reached the point for maximum medical improvement (MMI) of his or her injuries.
No claimant should accept a settlement offer until all the injured victims have arrived at the point of MMI. Hence, no claimants should agree to sign a release before that same point in time.