Insurance adjusters face many outside pressures every day. All readers should be aware of the most important because they could be putting money in your bank.
Your State Department Of Insurance is the first. Each state has a Department or Commissioner or Bureau of Insurance. This oversees the activities of all Insurance Claims adjusters and their superiors. Each state has a Consumer Complaint Division. You have the right to file a complaint if you feel that the adjuster has not made an offer or is engaging in unethical conduct.
An adjuster may be able to make a better offer if they are notified of a complaint to State Department of Insurance. Adjusters don’t like to have to deal with complaints and they don’t want copies of them in their personnel files.
The State Insurance Department will be able to help you with your complaint. His boss will be able to see that the claimant is determined to get positive settlement dollars. This will usually encourage the person to look at your case more closely and offer a better deal. If you do indeed write to the Consumer Complaints Division it will become a complicated and costly process. A complaint with the State Insurance Department will require additional work. This will be supervised by an additional contingent of personnel. They will try to settle your claim and get rid of you once they realize this.
Most insurance adjusters wish to be promoted to a higher level within their company. They are acutely aware that if there is correspondence from claimants in their personnel file (plus copies sent to the insurance commissioner), those letters will be read by an executive of his company. This will often be a man who doesn’t want “Problem” employees spluttering around his office causing headaches and additional work within the boundaries of that executive’s command. This adjuster knows full well that such complaints will keep the employee off the road for good and will prevent him from climbing the corporate ladder.
OTHER CRUCIAL ISSUES THE ADJUSTER IS AWARE
The reality of how things actually work in personal injury claims negotiations and settlements is often very different to what you see in “Formal law”. This is legal theory as it’s supposed to work. This simply means that adjusters can settle a case regardless of whether or not they are following “The Law”.
In the real world, Personal Injury settlements are governed by a “Compromise”, which is often very different from “The Law”. Because it makes their lives so easy, it is a common belief among these that there is almost always a chance of negligence on both parties in any given case. This boils down to this: Regardless of the law, practically every claim is valid and has value. Especially if the “Value”, is to “get rid” of it. QUESTION: How does Dan Baldyga know that this is true? ANSWER : “Because Dan Baldyga was an insurance adjuster, supervisor, manager, and then trial assistant for more than 30 years. He has seen it all and can relate to that.
Even though it is not something he says to him “officially”, every adjuster quickly realizes that if your case goes to trial, compromise will almost always be the order of day, even in cases where there are questions about liability. This gives him ample time to reach a settlement without putting your case in the hands of his Defense Attorney. This is why it will happen. Because of the high costs involved in preparing for (and proceeding into) a courtroom battle.
This is something that every adjuster must be aware of. Don’t give up if there is any doubt about who was at fault for the accident that you were involved in. Keep pounding away! If you have a determined claimant, who is willing to negotiate and refuses to leave, chances are that the adjuster will make an offer.
Because the adjuster (especially if the claim is of some value) doesn’t want it to be filed at the State Department Of Insurance, this happens. He knows that you will be offered a settlement offer at some point. It’s better to settle it now than wait for the defense costs to get out of control.
To continue looking good (especially to others who see their progress and how they deal with the external pressures that haunt them all), insurance adjusters – people who are determined to rise up the corporate ladder to success – must be extremely cautious individuals who work hard for their employers. This will be to your financial benefit, most certainly.