#1 MISTAKE: Settling your personal injury claim before you’re done treating from your car accident

QUESTION: What should I do before settling my personal injury case?

ANSWER: Before settling your personal injury claim, complete all your medical treatment to ensure you have a full recovery from your injuries from your car accident. Insurance adjusters may urge you to settle your claim early to minimize the payouts they have to make. Settling your claim before completing your treatment will prevent your medical bills from being paid and you receiving a fair settlement offer. Politely decline the insurance adjuster’s offers for settlement until after your medical treatments are complete. This will protect your rights and your personal injury claim.

The first biggest mistake you can make following a car accident is settling your personal injury claim before you’re done treating from your injuries.

Oftentimes, adjusters will say to people who are injured in an auto accident, “Hey, let’s go ahead and settle your case”, and they will make you an offer. They may tell you that your case is going to go away if you don’t settle right away, that you’re not going to get more money if you settle later, or that makes no difference if you settle right away or later.

This is a tactic to distract you and have you take your eye off the most important ball, and that is getting the medical treatment you need to have a full recovery. And secondly, they are looking out to protect their employers’ pocketbook — the insurance company. 

Most of the time, people who are injured in car accidents have full recoveries within three or four months. The problem is, if you settle your case before you’re done with your treatments and you happen to be one of those people who either does not have a complete recovery or you wind up treating longer than you or even your providers anticipated, you cannot renegotiate your personal injury claim settlement. 

Once you’ve settled your case, that’s it. There’s no going back to make sure that you were treated fairly in the settlement.

So if an adjuster says to you, “Let’s go ahead and settle the case now, we’ll offer you $XXX dollars to settle it.” You should simply say to them, “Thank you very much, I would rather wait until I’ve completed my medical treatment before settling my claim.” This is a perfectly reasonable position to take and one of the ways you can protect yourself and your personal injury claim.

When the insurance company is trying to get you to settle your claim early, that is not what’s best for you or your claim. The reason they’re pushing you to settle is because it’s a good deal for them because they will have settled your claim for way less than if you’d waited until you were fully recovered.

If you don’t settle your claim early — before you’ve recovered from your accident — your claim is not going to go away and you’re not going to get less money later.

What is most important is taking care of yourself, getting the medical treatment you need, and then settling your claim when you are done treating.

Whether you’re our client or not, we want to be a bridge of support for you.

We’ve developed a robust library of articles and videos organized into four topics which include our responses to the personal injury claim-related questions we’re asked most often.

• Los 10 Principales Errores En Lesiones Personales Que Debe Evitar
• LO QUE NECESITA SABER SOBRE SU RECLAMO
• How Are My Medical Bills & Wage Loss Paid
• Cómo Prepararse para
  Su Examen Médico Independiente

The articles provide advice and guidelines to help you navigate each phase of the personal injury claims process. Whether we represent you or not, we are passionate about helping you protect your rights, you receiving the medical care you need to recover from your injuries, and having the information you need to avoid mistakes that can harm your personal injury claim.