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State Farm Insurance Claims
State Farm Insurance Claims| Settlement Secrets (Scam?)
State Farm and other insurance companies are supposed to help you avoid financial disaster when you find yourself in an emergency. But the reality is that insurance companies are only interested in the bottom line. In other words, insurance companies are more into making money than issuing pay outs despite the fact that policy holders faithfully pay premiums each month. Forget about their smile and tear inducing ads that claim they care about you, State Farm will use every possible tactic to deny your claim or pay you as little as possible when you really need it.
Tricks Used By Adjusters From State Farm Insurance
Pay close attention to how State Farm handles your claim the moment you file it with them. If they assign your claim to a “team of adjusters”, this means that they consider claim at a lower value or risk. In simple terms, it means that the company considers your accident as a “minor” accident and will use every tactic or trick to try and pay you as little as possible. But even if they assign your claim to an individual adjuster, it is not a guarantee that they will make a fair settlement offer.
Another secret is that you do not have to give a recorded statement but adjusters will make you think recorded statements are required. Recorded statements are just another tool adjusters can use to deny you a fair settlement. They use recorded statements to ask leading questions that make say something that they can use to deny your claim or pay you very little. A simple answer like “I did laundry” to the questions “what chores did you do today?”, can lead to the adjuster claiming that your injuries are not severe because you seem to be able to complete daily tasks.
They are also not above digging into your past to find anything that can justify reducing or denying your claim. The most common thing they dig for is pre-existing conditions. For example, a migraine in the past may be used to deny a claim for a head injury you sustained in an accident. Apart from this, adjusters may try to delay dealing with your case to make you desperate enough to accept any offer they make.
How To Deal With Insurance Adjusters
The following tips will give you an upper hand when dealing with insurance adjusters:
- Do not agree to make a recorded statement before consulting your lawyer
- Tell the adjuster to go look at the police report if they ask for details about your accident, and don’t share your opinions about the accident with them
- Provide copies of medical documents and bills to an insurance adjuster that asks about the severity of your injury instead of trying to explain the injury to them
- Ask your lawyer to advise you on how to deal with pre-settlement expenses so that you don’t have to accept to accept low ball offers from adjusters
- Do not sign any agreement with adjusters or the insurance company before your lawyer takes a look at it