When the Settlement Offer Is Not Acceptable

In personal injury cases it cannot be stressed enough that the injured party refrain from any contact with the opposing counsel or insurance adjusters.

Doing so while not in the presence of your own Missouri personal injury attorney could have a damaging effect on your lawsuit. It is their job to ensure that their client or company pays you the absolute minimum they can get away with. To this end they will try any tactic to either get you to admit to comparative liability or accept an offer well below what your case is actually worth.

Working With a Missouri Personal Injury Attorney

Once you have successfully avoided contact with the defense team and hired your own Missouri personal injury attorney, they will collect all of the pertinent medical records and bills that resulted from your accident. It is important that you note the ones that have not yet been paid. Not only can your attorney help you win compensation for your damages, they can help you negotiate with the hospitals and doctors to bring those costs down.

Once this is accomplished, you and your attorney will come up with a number that seems fair to you to cover all of the costs associated with the accident, both current and future. This amount is known as a settlement offer and will be submitted to the defense in writing. Expect to receive a return letter with an offer of a much lower amount.

Receiving a Counter Offer

Have patience and let your Missouri personal injury attorney do his job. He is well aware that this is just a tactic on their part to try and see how desperate you are to settle. It is within your rights to ask for reasons why the offer is so low. They may feel that there is insufficient proof of your pain and suffering or that you are partially to blame for the accident. Whatever the case may be, it is important to remain calm and respond with a reasonable counter offer. In the majority of personal injury claims it is an insurance company that is going to make the payout. In some cases there may be a limit on the policy. If this is the case, you may have no choice but to accept the limit on what they are obligated to pay.

Allowing the Case to be Heard by a Jury

Sometimes the defense takes it to the end, refusing to accept anything higher then what they deem is fair. In this case your attorney may suggest allowing the case to be heard by a jury. He would not make this suggestion if he did not feel as though your case was a strong one. Often times this will prove beneficial to you, just like it did for a St. Louis plaintiff who was offered $100,000 during the settlement process. After 3 days of hearing plaintiff testimony by a Missouri jury, the defense realized they could be facing punitive damages and made another offer in the amount of $1,000,000.

Your emotional responses and actions in regards to low-ball settlement offers can be very telling to the defense and damage your case. If they sense desperation on your part they will prey on that and try to delay proceedings to get you to change your mind. For this reason it is best to allow a Missouri personal injury attorney take care of all of the negotiations and conversations with the defense team. Call Zevan and Davidson Law Firm at (314) 588-7200 today if you need help in negotiating for compensation from injuries you sustained in a recent accident.