We are experienced lawyers who can help you if you are injured in a car accident. We will answer general questions and/or recommend the best car accident lawyer for your case. Call us any time at 800-517-1614.
The title of this blog post refers to State Farm, but I could easily be talking about Allstate, GEICO, Progressive or any other insurance agency.
I’m writing this after speaking to a nice man who was rear-ended on the highway. The car that hit him, insured by State Farm, is clearly at fault. He sustained a head injury and was taken to the hospital. He was told to follow up with his doctor as he’s been diagnosed with a concussion. That’s a brain injury so he may need to see a neurologist.
The rep for State Farm could not have been any nice or expressed more empathy. That is often by design. They don’t want you to think they are up to anything. Long story short, they offered to pay for his ER visit and on top of that offered him around $1,400 to settle the case.
Why Do Car Insurance Companies Behave In Such A Terrible Way?
The hope of these insurance companies is that you will either think that’s a good deal or you will just take it because you could use the money. They aren’t looking at this guy or anyone else as a person. I’ve read they did over $150 billion in 2024 and made over $5 billion. One way you do that is to continuously pay much less on claims than you should.
If they looked at this guy as a person, they would see someone potentially at great risk due to his diagnosed concussion. That is a brain injury. Settling his case right now would be the dumbest thing he could do. I am not yet aware of how much the policy is for the car that hit him, but it’s at least $25,000 and potentially much, much more.
Also, if he took that settlement, he would not be able to file a claim on his own insurance for under insured motorist coverage.
This type of dirty trick is not a one off. It happens every day to hundreds of people and again it’s by all insurance companies. If you agree to settle and sign something, you might not be able to walk it back even if a lawyer makes you realize your error. You also run a huge risk in relation to your medical bills and ability to get treatment.
This is just one type of trick that happens. They play games on a lot of cases. They’ve paid out 100% of medical bills on a case based off what their billing specialists said and then later used the same specialists to argue bills should be 30-40% lower. A lawyer we know was awarded attorney fees due to late payments.
And when the insurance company calls, they are usually looking to get you to say something that could create a defense, even if you were rear-ended. Maybe they ask if you are sure your lights were on or how long you had been in the lane for. They are hoping to trip you up to the point where if they can’t deny your case, they can argue you were 30% at fault and attempt to reduce a payout by that amount. They do this often when there isn’t an injury because they know getting a lawyer for that can be hard.
The bottom line is you must know that when it comes to a car accident, the insurance company is not your friend and does not care about you. Tread carefully and know that if you have a good lawyer in your corner, even with the fee they charge after you win, you will almost always end up with more money in your pocket in the end.
Feel free to reach out any time if you want help in determining the best attorney for your case.
