The role that insurance companies play in truck crash lawsuits is often overlooked because most people are focused on proving the fault of the driver or company.
The Chicago trucking accident attorneys of Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC must routinely negotiate with insurance companies because any judgment rendered in our clients’ favor will ultimately be paid for by the defendants’ insurance companies.
Accident victims are often loathed to deal with insurance companies due to how frustrating doing so can be, and others fall prey to the numerous ways that insurance adjusters lure them into traps that deny them their full legal rights or weaken their cases.
Truck Drivers and Their Employers Must Carry Insurance
It is the law that any driver operating a vehicle must carry liability insurance and trucking companies must ensure that all of their drivers are covered. Also, these companies often take extra protection if one of their drivers acts negligently or they are required to provide compensation due to legal action.
When more than one party is involved in a case, multiple insurance companies are brought into the fray, and it can be challenging to navigate the intense process of negotiation that ensues when each insurance company does its best to escape financial responsibility.
What to Do When You are Contacted by an Insurance Company After a Truck Crash
The moment that a truck driver is involved in an accident, his or her employer initiates a process that is ultimately designed to mitigate the financial impact of the incident on both the company and its insurance carrier.
You do not realize it, but the driver’s employer will always start one step ahead of you because while you are in a hospital recovering from your injuries, the evidence is being gathered by insurance companies to determine where the weaknesses will lie in your case.
The primary reason an insurance company will contact you is to either deny the claim or to limit how much compensation they may be required to provide. Here are some tips to protect yourself.
- When in doubt, just don’t answer an insurance adjuster’s questions. When you explain that you would like to confer with an attorney first, you might be threatened. This is because insurance companies are more likely to take you seriously and to pay higher claims when you are represented.
- Be aware that every word you say is recorded. Adjusters may speak in a friendly manner and act as though they are only trying to help, but the entire conversation you hold will be picked apart by the insurance company’s legal team.
- Contact a Chicago truck crash lawyer as soon as possible. To minimize the lead that insurance companies have on building a defense, you need to retain a legal representative who can act quickly to gather vital evidence and construct your case.
- Once you’ve contacted a lawyer, contact your own insurance company. Your insurance company will have a vested interest in your case as well. You are required to contact your insurance company following an accident, but you should also be careful about what you say. If your medical bills and other expenses are not fully covered by the damages you collect from the plaintiffs’ insurance companies, it is possible sometimes to have your own insurance company cover the difference.
- Anytime an insurance company asks a question that you do not know how to answer, just tell the person to contact your lawyer.
- Do not accept any offer of compensation without reviewing it with your lawyer. It may even be beneficial to merely tell insurance adjusters that you would prefer that they communicate through your attorney rather than directly. This way, they will not make any attempt to take advantage of you or trick you into giving up your rights.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC is fully equipped to handle the complexities involved in working with multiple insurance companies, and our trucking law team is expedient when recovering evidence and other information that will benefit your case.
We also know all of the tricks insurance companies will use against you and how to defend you from them. It is for this reason that we have such a track record of success in the State of Illinois, and we can help you maximize your recovery as well. Contact us today to arrange a completely risk-free consultation so that we can review your legal options with you.
Our Chicago trucking accident attorneys work only on a contingency arrangement, which provides you with the peace of mind of knowing you will never be required to pay a fee unless we can recover damages on your behalf.
