by Guest » Thu Nov 18, 2010 12:24 pm
I was a passenger in the car. The car hit a guardrail head on going about 40mph. my head busted the winshield and my knee hit the dash. I was taken to the hospital where I was treated. I have been under doctors care for a year now along with physical therapy ,pain management, medication for treatment. All of my medical bills and time off work come to 30,000. I think that the settlement offer that they are giving me is way to low I of course have counter offered back twice. He has made a third counter off which is still to low for what I think I should recieve for future bills and pain and suffering. I have sent him a demand letter after he made his first counter offer. What is the best way for me to go about this to respond back with the negotiation process to get what I deserve. I want to settle this on my own without getting a lawyer. Any advice would be appreciated.
Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:32 pm Post Subject:
That really depends on how you set the whole thing up and how the negotiations are being done.
For example... did you start off much higher then what you wanted and the adjuster started off much lower then you think they should have been at? If so, perhaps the goal is to meet in to or close to the middle.
Did you start off with the amount you wanted and the adjuster started off way low? Did you start off at what you wanted and the adjuster came close to that amount/
You also need to consider how the counter offers/demands have gone. Are either parties going way up or way down? Are you both staying close to where you started?
All of these things need to be known in order to know what the next move could be.
I'll give some examples....
If a claim is worth $10,000 and an attorney makes the initial demand of $1,000,000, I might either not make a counter offer (pointing out that the demand was insulting and a waste of everyone's time) or I might offer $100... and equally insulting amount. But the reasoning is that I don't want to end up at the middle of $1,000,000 and my offer. Or I might make an offer of $5,000 and make it _clear_ that this is actually a good faith offer, unlike the million demand but that I have a _little_ bit of wiggle room. This sends a message to the attorney on where I want to be. Note... demands like that are made as the it's not good to be the first one who throws out a number. This is a way for attorneys to get around their need to make a demand first. It's an attempt to make the adjuster "go first". That is why some adjuster would not even make a counter offer.
If a claim was worth $10,000 you might start at $30,000. The adjuster counters with $5,000. Well, now you might suspect that they want to end up some where near the middle.
If a claim is worth $10,000, you ask for $10,000 and the offer is $5,000 well, then you might want to have told the adjuster that you are not going to waste anyone's time with a huge, stupid demand like $100,000.... you are going to ask what you think should be paid. This sets a tone... but it also means you need to be prepared to at least accept a little less. After all, it's still a negotiation.
So you can see that how to proceed really demands on what has happened so far.
Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:54 pm Post Subject: settlement
Claims are settled based on what your doctor has indicated in the way of permanent disability, future medical care.... Your monetary demands should be supported by your doctors final report. Throwing out arbitrary numbers based on what you "think" you deserve is not sound negotiating strategy. Develop a figure by backing it up with documented medical evidence.
Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:58 pm Post Subject:
ph56752 makes a very good point.
I've had plenty of attorneys send me doctors notes stating that the person has reached maximum medical improvement and they have not treated for 8-12 months... yet the attorney claims that they will need ongoing medical treatment. :roll:
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 01:03 am Post Subject: it will not allow me to see any posts
How do I view what others post to this?! It will not show anything?
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