Posted in Negotiating a Settlement
by John

If you’ve recently been injured and wondering when the best time to settle an auto accident is, the answer is quite simple but it will be different for almost everyone.  In general, you should only settle when you’re ready and you have an accurate guess of how much any injuries you sustained in the crash will cost you.  However, be careful not to wait too long before you settle if you have suffered serious injuries with on going physical therapy because you might risk running out the statute of limitations on your case, leaving you with no money.  You generally have around two years to file your claims in most states if you are an adult.  Make sure you’ve done the proper research and found out all of the details that pertain to your particular accident and how it pertains to your settlement.

Generally, you would like to settle with the insurance company later rather than sooner if you can afford it.  Settling later, when your physical therapy is complete from the accident and all the repairs are done to your car with give you an accurate amount of how much the auto accident actually cost you.  Settling before this time could leave you high and dry if your therapy runs into complications that weren’t foreseen when you tried to guess how much your therapy would actually cost before you were completely healed.  Don’t forget that by settling you are forfeiting all of your future possible legal actions against the insurance company, so you will have no legal way to collect more damages after the settlement.

Definitely never attempt to settle an auto accident when you are not ready.  Even if insurance adjusters are sending you letters and calling you at home, make sure that you have all your paperwork in order and have an accurate idea of how much you would ultimately like to get in an auto accident settlement before you meet face to face with the adjuster.  This will allow you to bargain better and strike a  better deal with the insurance company.  Generally, you will also never want to jump at the first offer an insurance adjuster offers you because this will more often than not be a low ball offer for negotiation purposes.

Once you’ve got all your paperwork in order and have the most accurate idea that you can get of the total damage that the car accident inflicted on you, you be in, sometimes heated, negotiations with the insurance company.  Most of these negotiations are tied up relatively smoothly, but some may hit a brick wall with both sides being unable to come to an agreement.  This may make the insurance adjuster make a “final offer” to you that you must decide to accept or take the case to court.  If the offer is within the range that you originally thought was fair, by all means accept it.

However, if the offer isn’t in the range that you thought was acceptable, there’s are many things that you can still do.  First, ask the adjuster point blank if this is the best offer and if it is really take it or leave it.  Pay very close attention to his answer.  Most adjusters won’t lie, but they can talk around the truth by saying something such as “this is the final offer I am authorized to give.”  This opens up the potential that the insurance company may be still willing to negotiate if you go over the adjuster’s head to his supervisor.

Figuring out when the best time to settle a auto accident injury claim is can be tricky.  Try to make yourself as well informed as you possibly can, have a good idea of the range of offers you think are fair and make sure that you stick to them.  If you hit a roadblock and are considering going to court, be completely honest with yourself about what your chances are.  Will a court award enough money to cover the costs of hiring a lawyer and paying the applicable court fees?  If not, you may instead want to take the insurance adjuster’s final offer.

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