If you are involved in an automobile collision, one of the things you’ll do to get compensated is make an insurance claim for what you’ve been through. You may ask that the insurance provider covers time you’ve missed off work or surgery that you had to have after you were injured. Whatever it is that you want to receive, you’ll include that in the claim and send it to the insurance provider.
You may get a settlement offer for your claim right away. The settlement might seem to be good, but before you accept it, remember that you do need to consider if it will cover all of your current expenses as well as any future expenses that will be tied to this incident.
Should you accept an insurance settlement?
You shouldn’t always accept an insurance settlement. Some obvious times to reject it include if the settlement is much lower than what you were asking for and if the insurance settlement won’t cover your financial or personal losses.
There are times when you may want to accept a settlement, such as if the settlement was generous and more than you need to cover your losses. If you know your health status and won’t be spending more to cover injuries or losses, then you might take the settlement and be satisfied with it.
It’s not usually appropriate to take the first settlement offered, because the insurance company tends to send a lowball offer. This isn’t necessarily done to be insulting or to insinuate that the victim doesn’t deserve more. Instead, it’s done to see if the agent can save the insurance company money by settling the claim early.
Keep in mind that if you settle the auto accident claim too early, you will likely have no further legal recourse if you have other expenses come up related to the crash. For that reason, it’s better not to settle your claim until you know the total cost of all the injuries and damages that you suffered. Your attorney will negotiate for more after you receive an offer if it’s not good enough based on your circumstances.
