The other day I was asked how to get an insurance company to stop calling. This young lady had been getting phone calls every day from three different adjusters from the same company. Once you hire an attorney, the calls should stop immediately. You can tell the adjuster you have hired someone and give them the attorney’s contact information and they should not call you again. Other than that, there really is no way to make them stop. There is a reason they keep calling. Adjusters get rewarded monetarily for settling claims quickly and under reserve.
A reserve is the amount of money the insurance company sets aside to pay out a claim once a claim is filed. The company does not make money on reserves so they are often kept as low as possible. When we deal with adjusters who have set low reserves, they can often be immovable and stubborn because they get punished monetarily if they settle above the reserves.
That is why they are calling so much. They want the claim to disappear quickly and they know that people will undervalue their claim. Especially when they are not even done treating yet. I know a woman who accepted a nuisance offer of $1,000.00 within weeks of getting hurt in a crash. She then proceeded to go the doctor, get referred to a chiropractor, and start treatment with a physical therapist. She treated for four months and had bills of approximately $4,000.00. She took the settlement before she knew the extent of her injuries and the treatment it would take to get better.
A nuisance offer is an amount of money the insurance company offers just to make you go away. They do not want to deal with you or your claim and so they make an offer right away without any information (as opposed to some adjusters that refuse to make an offer until they have every single medical report from the last ten years). These offers are fine for people who are not really hurt, but if you need professional medical help, you absolutely should not settle your case until you are well again.
Once an offer has been accepted and you have signed a release, there is no going back and getting more money if you discover something else is wrong. For instance, if you sign the release and the very next day your foot falls off and the doctor determines it was because of the subject incident, it is too late. Your foot is gone and you do not get any compensation for it. Signing a release is signing a contract. In consideration for an amount of money, you are giving up your right to sue the person who injured you.
The insurance company does not want you to know any of this. They will talk to you, but not give you information, they will harass you until you just want to be done with them, they will keep information from you because they do not want you to be informed. If an insurance company is treating you badly, please call Laskin Balma Attorneys at Law in Sacramento CA today. We are here to help you and look out for your best interests. We can stop the calls and take away some of your stress.
Need advice? Feel you have a potential personal injury case? Contact Laskin Balma Attorneys at Law in Sacramento California today.