After a Car Accident, Should You Accept the Insurance Company’s Settlement?

This video features Carson R. Runge, a Medical Malpractice attorney based in Texas.

Attorney Carson Runge | 888-364-6814 | Free Consult

If you’ve been in an auto collision, should you accept the insurance company’s settlement offer? What are some red flags to look for that could indicate you are not being offered fair compensation for your damages? What can you do to avoid being low-balled with an offer insufficient to pay your medical bills?

Carson R. Runge is a personal injury attorney with Sloan Law Firm with offices in Longview and Houston, TX. He concentrates his practice on catastrophic personal injury cases. In this Quick Question, he explains why you should be skeptical about accepting an initial offer from the insurance company.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 888-364-6814 or by submitting a contact form on this page. The consultation is free and confidential, and you owe no out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Don’t automatically accept an insurance company’s first offer.

It’s important to refrain from accepting an insurance company’s first offer. Insurance companies make their money by reducing and denying as many valid claims as possible, and will often offer the lowest amount of compensation possible to help with your damages, when you could be entitled to a far greater compensation.

After a car accident, you may have significant damages to pay for, including medical bills, lost wages, property damage, and even money that must be paid back to your health insurance for premiums or benefits paid on your behalf due to the wreck. Insurance companies often low-ball injured parties, even their own policyholders, in order to pay as little as possible. This is why it’s a good idea to seek legal counsel as soon as possible after an accident; an experienced car accident attorney will know what to expect from an adequate insurance offer and how to avoid finding yourself tricked by unscrupulous insurance adjusters.

When an insurance company approaches you right after the wreck to make an offer, this could indicate they have something to hide.

If an insurance company contacts you immediately after a car accident, there’s a good chance they aren’t telling you something you could benefit from knowing. By getting to you as soon as possible, they know you are more likely to be successfully lowballed. This is why it’s a good idea to say as little as possible to an insurance company after an accident, including your own.

Refrain from agreeing to anything and avoid making written or verbal statements regarding what happened before, during, and after the collision. Instead, the best thing you can do is to take down the contact information of the insurance company and let them know your lawyer will be in touch, even if you have not yet contacted one.

An experienced attorney will be familiar with both car accidents and insurance law.

It’s a good idea to bring a car accident lawyer onto your case to assess your damages and decide what level of compensation you are actually eligible to receive. These attorneys have access to experts who can assess your situation and assign an accurate value to each damage incurred from the accident. Seeking compensation on your own could result in money being left on the table which an attorney could argue you are entitled to based on the testimony of those experts. If finances are a concern in hiring an attorney, it might help to note that most personal injury attorneys, including car accident attorneys, work on contingency, which means you don’t pay unless they win.

To learn more, contact Carson Runge directly by calling 888-364-6814 or by submitting a contact form on this page. The consultation is free and confidential, and you owe no out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Video Transcript:

Rob Rosenthal:

Should you accept the insurance company's first offer if you're injured in a wreck?
We ask Texas attorney Carson Runge in this AskTheLawyers Quick Question.

Carson Runge:

No, because the insurance company is trying to get out of the case as cheaply as possible, and what they're not telling you are the obligations you have to pay your medical bills, or to pay back your health insurance for premiums or for benefits they've paid on your behalf due to that wreck. They will low ball you every time. And if they're coming to you offering you a settlement right after a wreck, there's something they're not telling you.

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