Why do insurance companies lowball? Can you name another business that prioritizes people over profits? Insurance companies are businesses with one mission: to maximize their profits. They do not have your best interest at heart and will do whatever they can to minimize your settlement, including acting like a concerned best friend on the other end of the phone line. Don’t fall for it.
If you have sustained personal injuries in an accident or lost a loved one due to wrongful death, speak to a personal injury attorney now. You’ll want to protect your legal rights, including the one to reasonable compensation for your losses and other damages.
Common Reasons Why Insurance Companies Lowball
After an accident, most people trust insurance companies and believe adjusters will help them through the claims process and pay them a fair settlement for their damages. But that’s rarely the case. Insurance companies will always begin with lowball offers. You should never accept the first settlement offer, especially without legal counsel.
Common reasons insurers lowball are they assume you have no idea what a claim is worth, to minimize company losses, prevent lawsuits, and strategize negotiations. They also bank on accident victims being desperate to settle to pay medical bills and other expenses and bet on them not retaining legal representation.
Assuming You Have No Idea What Your Claim Is Worth
Insurers assume you have no idea how much your accident claim is worth because—why would you? While insurance companies and personal injury lawyers do this all day, accident victims don’t. Many factors are considered when calculating losses, including medical bills, income losses, and property damages.
However, damages associated with pain and suffering aren’t tallied by receipts. They know you have no idea what they are worth or how to calculate them without a personal injury lawyer.
Minimizing Company Losses
Minimizing company losses means maximizing company profits. After all, revenues must exceed costs. Starting with lowball settlement offers ensures that they reduce the amount they pay out on claims. Most people without lawyers won’t negotiate with insurers and will accept the first offer. It’s always low, meaning they save a ton of money on injured parties without legal counsel.
Preventing Lawsuits
Insurance companies want to prevent lawsuits and will pressure injured parties to settle quickly to do so. When you accept a settlement offer, you must sign a release agreement clause prohibiting you from pursuing further losses or damages through a lawsuit. That means if you accept a settlement offer and your medical treatment and other damages exceed your compensation, you’ll absorb the remaining costs of your injuries—and can’t legally do anything about it.
Strategizing Negotiations
Offering initial lowball offers is part of liable insurance companies’ negotiation strategy. A low starting point forces accident victims to ask for more (most don’t), and a lowball offer forces personal injury lawyers to counteroffer (demand more money) for legally represented parties.
Negotiations may involve a back-and-forth exchange of counteroffers before settling. Depending on how good your attorney is, insurers may still get away with paying less than a claim is worth because they start so low.
Using Computer Software to Calculate Settlements
Most insurance companies use sophisticated computerized systems to calculate damages in personal injury claims. The programs are designed to analyze factors such as income losses, property damages, and healthcare costs.
However, personal injury claims are not a one-size-fits-all situation. Computer programs can not and do not account for the unique circumstances of individual cases. These miscalculations are another factor causing insurance companies to lowball.
Banking on Desperation
Liable insurers bank on injured parties’ desperate needs to settle their claims quickly to alleviate the financial hardship personal injuries place on most parties. Knowing that medical bills and missing work put most American families into debt, they will send lowball offers, assuming you will accept it out of desperation for immediate relief.
Betting On You Not Retaining a Lawyer
Another reason why insurance companies’ lowball is betting on you not hiring a lawyer. Legally unrepresented accident victims almost always accept the first offer, and it’s always a lowball offer. They know the general public is unfamiliar with the negotiating process, with many fearing it.
Insurance companies get away with undervaluing insurance claims daily because most unrepresented parties don’t demand more. They bet on you not hiring legal counsel because most people don’t know that personal injury lawyers do not require upfront costs or out-of-pocket expenses to hire them.
Personal injury attorneys work in contingent fee arrangements, collecting a percentage of your compensation after winning your case—and only if they win. These arrangements allow anyone to retain their services. If you’ve been injured due to another person’s negligent or harmful actions, consult a personal injury lawyer immediately to discuss your right to compensation.
Common Lowball Tactics Insurance Companies Use
Now that you understand why insurance companies lowball, you must know how to spot common lowball tactics insurers will use. These tactics include disputing liability, delaying claims, requesting unnecessary information, downplaying the severity of your injuries, and contesting medical treatment.
They will also use recorded statements and social media posts against you. Finally, they use misleading language with initial offers and often pressure accident victims to settle claims too soon.
Offering Quick Lowball Offers
The quick lowball offer aims to flash a figure that appears to be a large sum of money that excites most people. However, initial offers are nearly always lowball, and many don’t cover the full extent of injuries and damages.
The insurance claims adjuster is attempting to get you to accept a quick lowball offer before you’ve had time to fully reflect on your injuries’ impact on your daily life or assess all your damages, including pain and suffering or permanent impairment.
Disputing Liability
Disputing liability can manifest in many ways, including denying partial or total liability or shifting blame to other liable insurers in cases of multiple liability. Frequently, liable insurance companies will try to get injured parties to admit at least partial liability for the accident. They do this to minimize their responsibility for paying maximum damages.
Delaying Claims
Delaying tactics are another insurance company strategy to pressure injured parties into taking the first offer that finally comes. Dragging out the claims processes causes accident victims to accept a lowball offer because they fear how much longer another offer may take or that another offer won’t come at all.
Requesting Unnecessary Information
One way liable insurance companies delay the claims process is by requesting excessive and unnecessary information, such as medical records that go back for years despite not being relevant to your injuries. Requesting records is a two-fold strategy; on the one hand, it slows down the process and may create frustration and overwhelm; on the other, they can look for ways to dismiss your injuries as pre-existing.
You do not have to authorize full medical record releases to liable insurers; attorneys will advise you not to. If you’ve already signed a release, contact a personal injury lawyer to determine a strategy to counter whatever they may come at you with.
Downplaying the Severity of Your Injuries
Minimizing injuries is another way an insurance company lowballs accident victims. They will use statements you’ve made against you to downplay the severity of your injuries.
Sometimes, liable insurers hire private investigators to follow injured parties around, hoping to capture anything incriminating. If they can snap a photo of you going into the gym or a video of you carrying groceries from your vehicle to try to downplay injury severity, they will.
Contesting Medical Treatments
Disputing medical treatments is another tactic insurance companies use to minimize their company losses. They may acknowledge your injuries that occurred because of the accident but contest their severity and the need for treatments, such as acupuncture or massage. They may also claim you received treatment longer than necessary to draw out the claims process for a larger settlement.
Using Recorded Statements Against You
When liable insurers first call personal injury victims, they often pressure them to give a recorded statement recounting the details of the accident and their symptoms and injuries. They implement this strategy, hoping you will say anything they can use to dismiss partial or total liability of your claim.
It’s common practice to collect recorded statements almost immediately following an accident. However, they know that many injuries can take several days for symptoms to show up, such as whiplash and traumatic brain injuries like concussions.
So, they call on day one and ask how you feel, knowing these injuries commonly associated with personal injury accidents have delayed symptoms. You answer honestly that you feel alright but are still a little shaken up. Three days later, you wake up and can barely turn your head or have significant back pain requiring medical care.
You’re no longer feeling alright but have already downplayed your injuries in the recorded statement—a viable piece of evidence. It’s a nasty tactic that saves insurance companies money at the expense of injured victims. Speak to a personal injury attorney immediately if you’ve provided a recorded statement.
Using Social Media Posts Against You
Be careful what you post on social media. It’s honestly best for you to refrain from posting at all. Insurance companies are notorious for stalking social media accounts, hoping you post anything they can use to make a case for denying liability. Things that can cause a claim to be undervalued or denied include:
- Posts or comments about your accident
- Post or comments about your injuries and medical treatment
- Pictures of you smiling, laughing, or enjoying life in general
- Tagged pictures or videos of you enjoying life
- Tagged locations demonstrating you’re having fun
- Using location check-ins, telling them where you are and what you are doing
You’ve likely heard the adage: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Insurance claims adjusters can take an innocent picture and make it say something else entirely. If you’ve already posted, especially about your accident and injuries, it’s imperative you consult a lawyer to determine your next steps.
Misleading Language With Initial Offers
Insurance companies often use misleading language to convince injured parties they’re receiving a generous settlement offer. For example, they may indicate the offer as favorable when it’s significantly undervalued. The right marketing team and buzzwords can convince people they are getting a good deal. Retailers know it. Insurers use that same tactic.
Pressuring to Settle Too Soon
Sometimes, insurance companies misinform accident victims that they must accept their first offer or risk receiving nothing for their injuries. Insurers may pressure injured parties facing urgent financial needs, hoping they take the bait despite it not compensating for future expenses and long-term care.
How to Respond When Insurance Companies Lowball
Being insulted with ridiculously lowball offers can cause feelings ranging from genuine concern to overwhelming rage. It is essential to remain calm and refrain from saying things that can be used against you later. Don’t explode or threaten them. Don’t allow them to pressure you into accepting their lowball insult. Remain calm. You have legal options.
Get the Offer in Writing
When insurance companies present lowball offers, it is crucial that you secure a copy of the offer in writing. Otherwise, they can deny ever insulting you. If their lowball offer is found to be a bad-faith insurance tactic, you’ll need evidence the offer was made.
Bad-faith tactics are poor practices some insurers use that are unlawful and can result in their own personal injury claims. No one deserves to be victimized a second time while trying to recover from injuries of another person’s negligence.
Bad-faith insurance tactics include denying, undervaluing, and unreasonably delaying claims. They also include when insurance claims adjusters make false, intimidating, or threatening statements to accident victims, such as suggesting they have to take a lowball offer or they won’t get anything.
Hire a Personal Injury Attorney
Most personal injury lawyers work for contingency and offer free case evaluations. They will honestly assess your claim because they only get paid if they win your case. Personal injury attorneys won’t take your case if they don’t sincerely believe you have a legitimate claim for which they can secure compensation. Schedule a free consultation to discuss the circumstances of your claim.
Jeffery Robinette was admitted to practice law in 1991 and is licensed in all levels of state and federal trial courts in West Virginia. Mr. Robinette is also licensed in all state and federal appeals courts in West Virginia and the United States Supreme Court. As a National Board Certified Trial Attorney who has handled hundreds of motor vehicle, injury, and construction defect claims and a leading author on insurance claims settlement issues and difficulties in West Virginia, Jeff Robinette is uniquely qualified to represent your best interest.
