Personal Injury Claim Settlement

Evaluation of the bodily injury claim

Is your personal injury claim settlement offer fair? To be able to answer this, you need to learn how to evaluate your injury and claim.

If you understand how most insurance companies evaluate a claim, then you will see how the personal injury claim settlement negotiations will develop.

Early on the claim, insurance adjusters will give you a medical authorization form. These form gives them the power to request all your medical history.

You could request to soften the language of these forms so they can only see your medical history that would be related to the accident. The adjuster will review your history.

I mean they will go line per line picking items that will help their case. They will mainly be looking at your doctors notes.

Any indication that you are getting better, that you had a prior injury, or that something else happened that aggrieved the injury will be carefully noted.

Adjuster will also look at those notes that will hurt their case, any indication that the injury is permanent or that it could be argue that it is will be also noted for final evaluation.

This is why it is very important when seeking a fair personal injury claim settlement to read your entire medical file yourself. You need to find out what the doctor wrote, so those words cannot be twisted into something better. You need to be careful with what you say to any medical provider.

These individuals write every single thing you say. If you tell them that you are standing up at your work place all your day, then it will be noted. The adjuster will pick up on that and later argue that some of your injury could be attributed to the fact you stand up a lot at work.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Everything you say, even in the ambulance is noted, including jokes. Medical records will reveal everything you say. So when the adjuster looks at comments, s/he will be looking to document that you are doing better than you are really telling them.

The best way to ensure that you get a fair personal injury claim settlement offer is by reading your own medical file. Ask the adjuster for it. They will send you copies of what they are looking at.

Once the adjuster reads the entire file and weights the pros and the cons of your case, they will set up a treatment calendar. They will print a calendar from the date of the accident until the current day.

They will �map out� every single day that you went to the doctor. They are making sure that there are not big gaps on treatment.

Gaps on treatment will hurt your personal injury claim settlement. They consider that gaps on treatment are evidence that you were not injured badly. If you were hurt, then you would be going to the doctor. But gaps on treatment are a tricky thing.

Personal Injury E-book

Too much treatment could show that you are treating unreasonably. Insurance adjusters see trends of treatment. A �normal� soft tissue injury has an average treatment anywhere form four to five weeks.

With treatment beginning three times a week to only a few times a month. Evaluating trends like this one help the insurance company determine who is over treating, what doctors are treating more than what it is normal etc.

So when evaluating a bodily injury claim, the nature of the injury is as important as the treatment calendar.

Treatment will show that your injury was bad enough that you had to go to the doctor. If you do not treat then they will argue that your injury was not bad enough. We can see many problems with this approach.

Many people cannot get out of work to go to the doctor. It does not mean that they are not injured. However, not being able to show evidence that an injury was severe will cripple any case in a court of law.

The next step before the personal injury claim settlement negotiation is a study of the jurisdiction the case would be heard on.

How much do juries award in that jurisdiction? What is the average for the same injury with the same amount of treatment? Some jurisdictions are very liberal when paying for bodily injury claims.

They will award a lot of money for not that much treatment. Other jurisdictions are very conservative and feel that insurance companies get taken away by frivolous lawsuits.

Either way, the insurance adjuster knows that s/he needs to adjust their personal injury claim settlement amounts so they reflect the jurisdictional aspect of the juries award.

The evaluation of the claim does not stop there. Claim adjuster must take into account the reputation of the doctors and attorneys. A good attorney could move the adjuster to make a more attractive first offer, and a respectable doctor testimony could add significant value of your personal injury claim settlement amount.

As you can see, an insurance adjuster looks at many factors before making a call about the value of the claim, and they give themselves a range of settlement. What is the minimum amount a jury would award? And what is the maximum? In

Soft Tissue Injuries this range is anywhere from $500 to $3,500.

For example, if the claim adjuster believe that the minimum amount your personal injury claim settlement is $2,000. Then the opening offer will be $2,000. They cannot offer you less than that. There are regulations that forbid insurance companies to settled claim for less than the value of their bottom range.

This would be strong evidence of bad faith against an insurance company. The problem is that insurance adjusters really have all discretion to set the range.

They can just make the bottom range lower and then offer that. There is really not much regulation about setting these ranges.

Before the personal injury claim settlement negotiations start, the adjuster will review your medical history for prior injuries and for more �evidence� against you.

Learn more about personal injury claim settlement in permanent injuries.

Personal Injury Settlement Ebook