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Pitfalls To Avoid When Dealing With The Insurance Adjuster
Be aware of these pitfalls in dealing with the insurance adjuster assigned to your claim:
No matter how friendly the adjuster is at the beginning, later you may learn the adjuster has been working hard behind the scenes to defeat your claim. Usually the adjuster will ask you to give a statement soon after the accident. Legal traps may be set by recording your answers to what appear to be innocent questions. For example, you may be asked about your injuries. If you do not describe each injury in complete detail or you forget to talk about an injury, the recording can be played to the jury to show you did not mention that injury soon after the accident when asked to do so. Your own words make you appear dishonest to the jury. There are other traps. Let your attorney speak for you. Do not give any interviews or statements to investigators or adjusters.
The adjuster is trained to do certain things to weaken your claim. For example, chances are you will try to maintain as much of your daily routine as your injuries and your doctor will allow, even if pain forces you to stop and rest after only a few minutes. To try to show to the jury that you really were not seriously injured, the adjuster may secretly take videos of you trying to go about your daily activities such as mowing the lawn, caring for children, walking, working, grocery shopping, and so forth. The jury will not see that part of the video where you were in obvious pain.
If you are making innocent mistakes that will weaken or destroy your claim, the adjuster will not tell you so. Do not assume because the adjuster has the purse strings that the adjuster really wants to pay you the full value of your claim. Adjusters do not get pay raises and promotions for voluntarily paying you and other accident victims top dollar.
Time is not on your side. Critical evidence to win your case may be lost soon after the accident unless a trained investigator captures it.
Do you really know the true value of your claim? The adjuster may offer to pay your medical bills, lost wages and property damage. This may seem fair to you, but the facts of your case may entitle you to much more than this. For more information on the value of your claim, read this article.
Copyright 1994 - 2007 Clifford B. Rodgers.
Last Modified July 2, 2007
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