Georgia Injury Law Blog
MSN Money has a few tips for persons involved in car accidents in Georgia.None of these tips are a surprise to Atlanta car accident lawyers, but many motorists fail to understand how doing the wrong things soon after an accident can damage their claim. Insurance companies have extremely experienced insurance adjusters who handle claims for personal injury and wrongful death. Unfortunately, a great deal of what impacts a claim for personal injury often occurs before the victim has counsel. It is during this timeframe that insurance adjusters have their greatest impact on the outcome of injury claims.
One of the first people that you will meet after an auto accident is the claims adjuster from the other driver’s insurance company or from your insurer.A claims adjuster’s job is to identify fraud in an auto accident claim.As Atlanta car accident lawyers, we often find claims adjusters trying to confuse an accident victim, by trying to get accident victims to settle as quickly as possible.Unfortunately, when a driver says or does the wrong thing after an accident, it can negatively impact the claim. In one recent case, an insurance adjuster was able to get a person with a serious spine injury to settle for an extremely small amount of money thereby eliminating his claim for future damages.
A claims adjuster may also try to fool you into comprising your claim by encouraging you to visit a “preferred repair shop. “ Often, these repair shops will underestimate the damage to your car or fail to have the vehicle properly repaired because they are endeavoring to lower the cost to the insurer. Each person who has been in an accident has a right to go to the repair shop of his or her choice.
It’s important for accident victims in Georgia to remember that a claims adjuster works for an insurance company, and has the insurer’s, and not their best interests, at heart.Unfortunately, many drivers simply lose sight of this very simple fact, and put their faith in claims adjusters, when it may not be in their best interest to do so.
For instance, one of the common mistakes that we see auto accident victims in Georgia make, is accepting fault for an accident, even without knowing that they are doing so.When you’re involved in an accident, you may wonder whether you could have possibly done something to cause the accident.However, accepting responsibility for the accident can impact your claim.Claims adjusters love to see motorists apologizing after an accident.It adds credence to their theory that you have been responsible for your accident, and therefore, allows the insurer to undervalue your claim.
Another thing that Atlanta car accident lawyers often see is motorists talking too much after an accident.There is no need to give everybody at the scene, including witnesses and bystanders, a complete account of what exactly you think went wrong, and who you think was to blame for the accident.It is not the time or place to give your opinion of what caused the accident.It’s natural to be anxious after an accident and make nervous jokes.However, making fun of your “old wreck of a car,” which may have seemed perfectly harmless after an accident, could actually be used against you.
In fact, Atlanta car accident lawyers would recommend that you speak to as few people as possible after the accident.Make a report to the police, but stick to the bare facts.Avoid speaking to the other driver’s insurance company’s claim adjusters until you speak to an Atlantic car accident attorney.
The Atlanta auto accident attorneys at the Katz Personal Injury Lawyers represent persons injured in car accidents across the metro Atlanta region and Georgia.