When should you Consider Alternatives?
After numerous weeks of going back and forth with the insurance company, and still no progress, it might be time to explore alternative ways to solve your case. Here are some typical situations where you’d want to take an alternate route to a settlement:
- After you’ve turned over all requested documentation, and the insurance company continues requesting them in order to reach a solution.
- If you’ve got a suspicion that the insurance company is stalling until after the statute of limitations has expired.
- When the claims adjuster denies or ignores your claims without reasonable cause.
- If the insurance company makes a ridiculously low settlement offer and refuses to alter it.
- Sometimes you can get an adjuster who’s just impossible to deal with, either condescending to you or being overly aggressive.
- When the insurance company simply avoids and doesn’t respond to your calls.
Alternative Methods of Recovering Compensation
1. Hire an Attorney
The obvious best solution is to seek out an experienced Personal Injury attorney. There’s no downside to speaking with an attorney as the initial consult is free, and most of them operate on a contingency fee basis.
This means they only get paid if you win your settlement.
If nothing else, you’ll walk away with a professional’s legal opinion on how you should handle your case.
What an Attorney Can Do For You
An experienced lawyer is going to thoroughly examine the circumstances of your case, and decide whether pursuing compensation is a viable option for you. Worst case scenario an attorney will level with you and let you know you don’t stand to win a significant amount, and that pursuing a claim might not be worth your, or their, time.
An attorney who works on a contingency basis isn’t going to BS you. If they take your case they’ll have to cover any costs for your case upfront, which means the only way to make their money back is if they’re confident your case can be won.
If they conclude that you’re likely to win a significant amount, then it’s in your best interest to let them handle your case. An inexperienced plaintiff will almost always get smaller settlements than an experienced lawyer will.
So if you have been seriously harmed, and there is substantial money on the line, you’ve got far more to lose by defending yourself. If you attempt to defend yourself in court, and you lose, you’ll not only receive zero compensation, but you’ll also have to cover the court costs and legal fees for the opposing side.
Hiring an attorney will drastically boost your chance of winning, as well as increase the settlement amount.
2. Mediation
If an attorney doesn’t think you’re likely to win a decent settlement, then mediation is a great option for you to pursue. And thankfully, you don’t require any legal expertise to undergo mediation.
Insurance companies will do anything they can to avoid going to trial. This is partly because lawsuits can be expensive to defend against. But even more importantly, if your case is decided by a jury, the insurance company could have to pay you even more than you’re demanding, in the form of punitive damages.
So if you don’t want to file a lawsuit, and negotiations aren’t going well, tell the claims adjuster that you’re open to mediation.
What exactly is mediation?
This is when a neutral outside party (a mediator) is jointly brought in by you and the insurance company. These mediators are generally retired judges and lawyers.
The mediator will bring you and the claims adjuster to a neutral space, usually their office, and will hear your case and examine your evidence. They will then turn to the insurance company and interpret your demands in a neutral way. The mediator may bounce back and forth between you and the adjuster as they hone down on an agreement.
Mediation proceedings are pretty informal and a good mediator will eliminate as many obstacles, and help form agreement points between you and the adjuster, to quickly reach a mutually beneficial settlement.
3. Arbitration
Mediation and arbitration are very similar in that an outside party comes in to help finalize a decision between you and the insurance claims adjuster.
With arbitration, however, rather than helping opposing sides reach a mutual agreement, an arbitrator evaluates all the evidence, and then simply makes a decision. Since this can be more risky for you, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a strong case before pursuing arbitration.
4. Trial
Our attorneys can sue the Defendant and win the case before a judge in the District Court of Maryland or win the case with a jury at the Circuit Court of Maryland.
If you’ve been harmed due to someone else’s negligence,
here’s the bottom line:
You may be suffering physically …
But you shouldn’t have to suffer financially.
Let our Personal Injury Attorneys help you
get the compensation
you deserve.
Contact Hassan, Hassan & Tuchman, PA
410-669-5070
