How Insurance Companies Work To Minimize A Claim’s Value

An insurance company has promised to provide financial support to a policy holder that has suffered a covered loss. Still, that fact does not prevent the same insurance company from working to minimize the extent of that loss.

Strategies employed by insurers

Asking the claimant to complete loads of paperwork. The more paperwork that a claimant needs to complete, the greater the chances that some error might be made somewhere. Then the insurance company can deny the claim, or reduce the size of the promised coverage, due to the discovery of that error.

Delay tactics: An adjuster might fail to take phone calls from a claimant. Alternatively, an adjuster might answer a call and then use that time as a chance for pressing the claimant to complete yet more paperwork, or to provide further evidence of an injury’s impact.

How strategies used by a claimant can dampen the intended effect of the insurance company’s tactics.

If the adjuster insists on making a low offer, the claimant can insist on a written explanation for the low number in the offer. If that written explanation is not provided, the claimant can send a written complaint, directing it to the adjuster’s superior. Something in writing gets the attention of the insurance company.

Working with an Injury Lawyer in Hamilton, a policy holder/claimant can look for phrases of questionable legality within the insurance company’s policy. Working with an injury lawyer, make sure that any signed document produced by the insurer has a true signature and not a fake one. Some insurers try to convince claimants that they signed specific documents, when they never saw such documents.

Send requests by registered mail. That deprives the insurance company of the chance to claim that it did not receive the request.

Challenge an insurer’s decision. That surprises the person that made such a decision. Few people are bold enough to challenge a decision made by a company that insures members of society.

The basic approach used in each suggested strategy for victims:

The basic approach calls for creating an element of surprise. It never hurts to introduce that element of surprise during the first contact with someone on the insurer’s staff. For instance, instead of threatening to use stronger legal tactics, say that you want to avoid going that route.

That lets the person who has received the call know that you understand what path you might follow, if you do fail to get any amount of cooperation. A display of such knowledge can work to trigger a greater level of cooperation from the insurance company.

Too many policy holders feel that they should go along with the insurance company’s decisions. They have been duped by all the advertisements.