According to the National Floor Safety Institute, over 1 million emergency room visits every year in America are due to slip and Fall accidents. If you were a victim of a slip and Fall Accident in Fall River due to someone else’s negligence, you have a right to expect the person responsible to compensate you for your damages. In most cases, you will have to deal with the property owner’s insurance company.

Slip and fall accidents cost a lot of money and they are more common than you think. Insurance companies handle such cases on a daily basis and they do their best to pay out as little as possible or avoid paying any slip and fall claims. While we might give you tips on how to deal with insurance adjusters, it might also be beneficial to seek the services of a Fall River slip and fall accident lawyer who will review your case.

What are the main goals of an insurance company when handling a slip and fall accident claim?

Their main goals are:

Lower payouts

An insurance company will never pay you more than you deserve or more than you ask for. They are mostly looking out for their bottom line and the lower the payouts, the greater the profits for them and the bigger the bonuses for the adjuster.

Protecting the business’s reputation

Insurance companies will protect their clients by investigating all claims. If they find a loophole in your story or find a way to shift the blame onto you, best believe they will maximize that opportunity. Additionally, they are obligated to protect their clients’ reputation. If, for example, you slipped and fell at the store, the insurance company will try their best to prove that the store wasn’t negligent and the accident was your fault.

To save time

As we mentioned earlier, insurance companies deal with cases similar to yours on a daily basis. This means they have hundreds of claims to handle and they do not want additional claims like yours to take away from their other responsibilities.

Once you understand the insurance company’s priorities, you’ll have a better understanding of where they’re coming from. The insurer wants to accomplish all the three mentioned goals and sometimes they will risk wasting time to protect the company’s reputation and money.

You should leverage their goals to negotiate a better settlement with them. Start by telling them that offering you a fair slip and fall accident settlement will save on time and protect their client’s reputation. Of course, you should only come to the table prepared with basic negotiation skills and enough evidence to support your claim.

Tactics insurance companies use to pay less 

When you notify the insurance company of your intent to file a slip-and-fall injury claim, an adjuster will be assigned to you. Their job will be to resolve your claim quickly for as little as possible. Just like any other employee, insurance adjusters get paid bonuses for their performance at work. They, therefore, have a number of strategies they use to handle slip and fall accident claims and they include:

Being friendly

Just to be clear, insurance adjusters are not your friends. They work for the insurance company and they are obligated to protect their clients who in this case, are responsible for your injuries. The insurer will try to convince you not to hire a Fall River slip and fall accident lawyer because they will handle everything on your behalf. They will try to get a recorded statement from you and trick you into saying things that can be used against you. We don’t recommend accident victims give out recorded statements without legal counsel because there’s a high chance the adjusters will manipulate them.

Denying your claim

Denying a slip-and-fall claim is a powerful move and it works very well to deter a claimant. Insurance adjusters delay claims hoping that claimants will let’s go of their claims. Some of the ways that adjusters deny claims include:

• Insisting that the accident was your fault
• Saying that there is no proof of your injuries
• You’re using preexisting injuries to file a fraudulent claim
• You took too long to report the accident
• The property owner isn’t guilty of anything

If an insurer denies your claim, you shouldn’t be discouraged and you should continue pursuing your claim.

Lowball settlement offers

The adjuster will try to convince you that their offer is a fair deal and it’s in everyone’s best interests. They might also say that for cases like yours, it’s the most that they can offer you, and offering you anything more than that is overstepping their authority. You have the right to reject their lowball offer and continue with negotiations.

Delaying

If a claim negatively affects an insurance company’s bottom line, it would be in their best interests to drag it out rather than resolve it as soon as possible. Some of the ways that insurance companies delay the claims process include:

• Ignoring your questions
• Failing to answer your calls
• Ignoring your counter offers

Adjusters sense when you are desperate and you need the money. Their delay tactics will definitely work on you if you are financially strained and frustrated by the claims process. They will leverage your position to offer you lowball settlements. It’s important that you exercise persistence and patience because slip-and-fall injury claims take time to resolve and the insurer may not be stalling on purpose.

How to Succeed in Negotiating Your Insurance Claim

On the other extreme is a pushy adjuster who insists that you should take the offer because it’s the best that you’re going to get. They might say that if you don’t take their offer they will close your slip and fall accident case. Adjusters who make such claims are aware of the statute of limitations and they’re hoping you’re not. In the state of Massachusetts, you have approximately 3 years from the time you report your slip and fall accident case to file a lawsuit.

Your Fall River slip and fall accident lawyer can boost your settlement offer

Insurance adjusters are trained negotiators but so is a slip and fall accident lawyer in Fall River. The best way to maximize your compensation and to protect your rights is to seek the services of a skilled slip and fall lawyer. Contact us today at 508-676-0001 to schedule your free initial consultation.