No. Not yet, anyway. And you shouldn’t, unless you know for sure.
There are lots of reasons you may not want to take the insurance company’s offer. It may not be enough. You may not know how much is enough. And you might be afraid that if you give an adjuster your best number, he might try to take advantage.
(And even if you don’t want much at all, he probably will try to take advantage of you, in the sense that he will offer you less than he has the ability to pay.)
It doesn’t make sense to take an offer you are not sure about unless you literally have no alternative. It won’t cost anything to call me – or any other personal injury lawyer – to ask what I think of the offer, and what I think the case is worth.
And there are lots of options. Whenever an adjuster makes me an offer, I do some combination of the following:
• Tell him I will have to talk about it with the person I am working for. (That’s kind of a no brainer)
• Tell him I need more information from him – like why does he think this is such a great offer
• Tell him I need to get him more information (usually about how bad my client’s injuries are, but maybe whether my client’s hospital will take a discount on their bill, or whether my client’s insurance company will agree to reduce the amount they are asking for)
• Tell him that’s not enough, and my client needs more money.
Sometimes, if I think the offer is too low, I might just sit on it. A couple times, the adjuster has called me and raised the offer without my doing anything. It doesn’t happen very often, but my client feels better when it does.
The only time I accept the offer is when I am sure that I have been through all of the important options with my client, and I know he will accept it.
I have been a lawyer over 30 years. Just because the insurance company is making you an offer, doesn’t mean it’s a good one. If you’ve been in an accident give me a call. My phone is 513-621-4775.
Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.
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