In a car accident case, a litigant may choose to contact the other driver's insurance company to try and reach a quick settlement.
In a medical malpractice case, an injured patient may believe that the doctor and his insurance company will want to settle quickly to avoid a messy lawsuit and possible publicity that could impair the doctor's reputation.
The injured victim may not want to deal with an attorney.
He may think he can do a better job than an attorney.
He may think that doing it himself, he won't have to share the money with an attorney.
He may think he's saving himself paying a legal fee for something he can do on his own.
An injured victim may think he knows how to negotiate.
He may think negotiating with a claims examiner at an insurance company is the same as negotiating at the pawn shop.
He may think that since he knows how to haggle on 47th Street in the jewelery district, he has a command of the negotiation process in a potential accident case.
Sorry, but after handling cases like this for almost 28 years, I can tell you right now that type of thinking is so wrong.
You see, the insurance company trains their claims examiners well.
They train them to lowball the claim.
They train them to spot the inexperienced claimant...the one who forego's getting his own attorney.
They train them with tactics to make it very challenging for the injured victim to understand how to obtain more money.
Here's the reality...
The claims examiners are the frontline defense for the insurance company when someone is injured.
They are the ones who will pepper you with endless requests for copies of your medical records.
They are the ones who have limited authority to settle, even if there is a reason to do so.
They are the initial blockade.
You should know that they do an admirable job of getting the unitiated to accept lowball settlements.
You demand a huge amount of money.
The claims examiner says the most he can offer you is $5,000 to settle.
You're now stuck.
You are not in a position to start a lawsuit as you don't know how.
You're not in a position to explain why your injuries are worth 100 times more than that.
You're not in a position to obtain legal research to see what the true value of your injury really is.
You are not in the position to leverage your knowledge against the defenses the claims examiner is throwing at you.
You believe, as a last ditch effort before resorting to calling an attorney, would be to threaten to bring a lawsuit.
You believe that this threat we'll make them quiver.
You believe this threat we'll force them to reconsider and offer you substantially more money.
You believe it's going to cost them a significant amount of money to hire an attorney to defend your potential lawsuit.
Again, after handling cases like this for more than a quarter century, I can tell you that is absolutely untrue.
These insurance companies have entire teams of lawyers both in-house and outside counsel who do nothing but litigate and defend cases brought against them and their insureds.
They don't care if you bring a lawsuit or not.
It doesn't really affect them or their bottom line one way or another.
Besides, they know you're bluffing.
As for your medical malpractice case, I will tell you medical malpractice claims examiners are very sharp and very savvy. They understand the medicine. They understand how to negotiate. Like car insurance companies, they won't be intimidated by your threat to bring a lawsuit against the doctor.
In fact, they pride themselves in defending their doctors till the very end.
A medical malpractice insurance company will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend their doctor if they believe your case lacks merit.
To learn even more, I invite you to watch the video below...
