• What is the Best Response after the Personal Injury Insurance Adjuster Gives His Settlement Offer?
• Threatening “Bad Faith”
• “Nibbling” at the Close of Negotiations Settle it Yourself Newsletter
 

Settle It Yourself Newsletter

Hello!! Welcome to the March edition of Settlement Central’s Newsletter. We are pleased to share this newsletter with you, as our business is helping people get satisfactory settlements for their personal injury claims.

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In this month’s issue, we will discuss the options for your best response after the adjuster gives his settlement offer.

Thank you for your interest in our site; we hope you will find us to be an excellent source for your own personal injury needs!!

Jeanine Steele
Publisher, Settle It Yourself Newsletter

What is the Best Response to Make after the Personal Injury Insurance Adjuster Gives His Settlement Offer?

Start out with the assumption that the adjuster is not going to make his first offer equal to the entire sum he is authorized to pay. No, he will make a lowball offer—often times much lower than his authorization—in the hope that you will capitulate and accept it on the spot. You can expect one or all of the following three strategies to accompany his offer because people generally fall for them and accept what he says as the truth.

He might suggest that the amount offered was decided by a “review committee”; or he might state that he went to bat for you and got you all that he possibly could; or he might combine these two, and end by stating that he does not like to “fool around negotiating” and so this is his best and final offer.

Naturally we address each of these strategies in detail on the member’s site of SettlementCentral.Com, JOIN SettlementCentral.Com NOW!! You will learn there why he uses these techniques, and how to deal with each of them. For example, the mention of a “review committee” is becoming a very popular ruse used by adjusters on unsuspecting claimants (and many attorneys as well).

But in reality it is no more than a bogus attempt to put some credibility behind something the adjuster and his supervisor cooked up. It evokes an image of fair minded adjusters sitting around discussing the strengths and weaknesses of someone’s claim, each of them having in front of him or her a copy of the medical file and various documents for review.

Come on! Do you really think that insurance companies do that? Of course they might in some bigger claims, but NOT for the types of claims you will be settling on your own. We teach our members how to recognize those ruses and how to stop the adjuster in his tracks using powerful and effective rebuttal language.

Now, to answer the question as to what to say right off the bat after the adjuster gives you his lowball offer, we suggest that you will want to project strength of purpose: the resolve and the patience to see this claim through to a successful conclusion. So, no matter what the offer is, be prepared to reject it with powerful language. That does not mean aggressive language; be calm and sure of yourself in communicating your rejection of his offer.

But let’s take a look at what NOT to say. Let's start with just one example of one of the worst things you can say once he lays his lowball offer before you. Suppose he just told you this is “the most my review committee has authorized me to pay”; DO NOT go asking him, "So you don't think you could ever pay any more than that?" What do you expect him to say? He is just going to use the opportunity to reaffirm that he is at his maximum limit. Do you really expect him to say he was just fooling and that he really wanted to offer you twice as much? You will have just undermined your chances of ever getting much more than he put out in his first offer.

How should you respond? Express disappointment. Tell him that you are disappointed in his offer; but you will provide him additional information and get back to him. That is all you really have to say. Be courteous, but do not engage in idle chit-chat after he has laid out a lowball offer. We have a script of conversation points on the member’s site to aid in making responses that will preserve your options to demand more in your next go-round.

Now, for you, our Settle It Yourself Newsletter subscribers, we have created a special page with some additional tips in it. You will be given a link to it below. For truly helpful, informative, additional FREE help on understanding insurance adjuster communication topics such as:

• Threatening “Bad Faith” is a BAD Idea in Most Instances
• “Nibbling” at the Close of Negotiations in Personal Injury Claim Settlements

Settlement Central offers an expansive section on negotiations and how to succeed without becoming a used car salesman in the process. You will learn valuable techniques that our attorney members have learned from this site and now use with their own cases. You will also have access to examples of “second salvo” letters that you can send in to boost the adjuster’s offer and achieve a fair and reasonable maximum settlement award.

To access this valuable information, please join now! Settlement Central | Subscribe (http://www.settlementcentral.com/format.php?Page=aacb)

About SettlementCentral.com
http://www.settlementcentral.com

SettlementCentral.Com, Inc. is a Washington corporation providing general educational information, online, to personal injury victims throughout the United States on how to manage their own personal injury claims through the settlement process—from gathering the necessary information (evidence) to submitting claims and demand letters, through engaging in successful personal injury settlement negotiations with insurance companies. Our online instructions and self-help forms and letters are designed to make for easy insurance claims settlements in the areas of auto accidents, pedestrian accidents, dog bites, vicious animal bites, premises liability, and slip and fall accidents.

Contact Information
Your comments and suggestions are welcome! Tell us what topics you would like to see discussed in this newsletter and we will do our best to bring you current useful information. Write to us at: info@SettlementCentral.com