After being injured in a car accident, you’re going to receive a lot of contact from insurance companies looking to get out ahead of your claim. Although adjusters and other representatives from these companies might seem friendly and even helpful at times, they’re not on your side. And if you make the mistake of trusting them, then you could end up recovering less compensation than you deserve for the harm that’s been caused to you.
Therefore, you need to be extra careful when interacting with an insurance company. In fact, it might be in your best interests to avoid talking to an insurance company until you can seek guidance from your attorney. Let’s take a closer look at why you’re better off avoiding discussions with an insurance company until your attorney advises you otherwise.
Talking to an insurance company might not be in your best interests
You’re going to have to have some interaction with an insurance company as you try to figure out what to do with your claim. But you should avoid having conversations about your accident without your attorney’s guidance. Here’s why:
- The insurance company’s motivation: The insurance company is in the business of making money. To be profitable, they need to recoup premiums while reducing payouts as much as possible. Therefore, they’re going to look for any justifications they can find to avoid paying you what you think you’re owed. Don’t give them the satisfaction of making statements that they can use against you.
- The insurance company’s tactics: Remember, the insurance company wants to find reasons to deny you compensation. In some instances, they’ve even go so far as to create scripts for their employees that are aimed at getting claimants to talk. They’ll also try to be friendly toward you so that you’re comfortable talking to them. In many instances, the insurance company will also ask you for a recorded statement, that way they can later use your words against you to show that you’re partially to blame for the accident.
- The extent of your harm might be minimized: When you talk to the insurance company, you open the door to them taking your words out of context and using them against you. As a result, the insurance company might try to deny you the compensation you truly deserve by making your injuries look less severe than they actually are.
- The insurance company won’t give you time to think: The insurance company is probably going to contact you as quickly as they can after your accident. That way they can try to pin you down on statements without giving you the opportunity to think about them. This puts you at risk of saying something you didn’t intend to say, which could jeopardize your claim and lead to a bad outcome.
Don’t make costly errors in your personal injury case
There are a lot of mistakes you can make in your personal injury case, any one of which could put your claim at risk of failure. Therefore, you need to be on your toes as you navigate your case.
Of course, you don’t know what you don’t know, which can make proceeding through the personal injury lawsuit process tricky. But this isn’t a situation where you have to be left in the dark. On the contrary, you can find guidance and support so that you know how to best position your personal injury case for success.
