Taking the First Settlement Offer

Answer:

You may be unsure if you need a lawyer if you have received a call from the insurance company of the negligent person who caused your injury, and they made an offer. You may think that offer is good enough and that there really doesn’t have to be anything else. What you may not understand is that there are certain consequences of accepting an offer from an insurance company, not to mention that the insurance company is never going to pay anything close to full and fair value on a claim.
As Clearwater injury lawyers, we have a reputation of prosecuting our claims fully and completely, including going to court and having the jury determine the value of a claim, not the insurance company. That’s important to understand, because the insurance company who talks to an un-represented client thinks they can get away with something before lawyers from our firm can come in and assess the true value of the loss.

It takes time to understand the extent of the injuries, and how those injuries are going to affect somebody. Keep in mind, when you settle a claim, you don’t get to come back in five years and say, “I didn’t know that my doctor was going to tell me that I needed surgery.” We’re going to make sure that we’re accounting for all of the damages that will affect somebody, not just in the present but for the rest of their life. It’s a very bad idea to even consider accepting a claim that is just offered from the insurance company the first time.