9 Questions Insurance Adjusters DON'T Want You To Ask

– I'm going to tell you nine questions that insurance adjusters do not want you to ask in personal injury
claims, slip and falls, car accidents, and much more. You'll see how asking these questions may get you a larger settlement
in a shorter amount of time, and we're starting right now. The first question that
adjusters don't want you to ask is what is your
average claim payout? Adjusters and insurance
companies are tracked by their average loss payouts, that's the average amount
they're paying out per claim. In a car accident injury case, Geico was sued for bad faith and claims documents
were revealed that shows that Geico is ranking
their insurance adjusters in different percentiles. Now, Geico adjusters in the third and fourth percentile
were paying out the most on average per claim.

And claim documents showed
that for these adjusters that were paying out in
the upper 50% of claims, their supervisor was ordered to suspend to stop their settlement authority until there was improvement noted. The adjusters that were paying
out in the top 50% of claims that Geico then have to ask
their supervisors for authority. Adjusters don't wanna have
to ask their supervisors for authority because it takes extra time and then they can't settle claims as fast. I've had adjusters tell
me that they're not ranked based on how much they pay, they're ranked based on
how soon they reach out to the injured party after the accident and other things like that.

The bottom line is that some adjusters are better
negotiators than others, and yes, they are ranked
in different percentages in the insurance company
that they work for. The second question adjusters
don't want you to ask is, is your settlement authority
double your first offer? I spoke with an adjuster who worked at one of the largest insurance companies in the United States. He told me that his ultimate
settlement authority was two times his opening offer. That means if his opening
offer was $10,000, the most he could settle for was $20,000. Now I don't suggest asking this question in the beginning of the claim. You should only ask it if their final offer is not
twice their initial offer.

The third question
adjusters don't want you to ask in personal injury claims is where can I find more about how you settle
personal injury claims? In a state like Florida,
the injured person or their attorney can
file a Civil Remedy Notice of insurer violation. All these claimed
violations are kept online in a website that you can view. You can even search by the
individual insurance adjusters.

Now you got this section
of this form where it says, "Name of individual responsible
for violation, if any" and you put in the adjuster's name. It's then going to show you the past times that people or their attorneys
have filed complaints for Civil Remedy Notices
against these adjusters. In other words, these are times where the injured person
or their attorney is saying that the insurance company
was not acting in good faith. I'm going to give you an example of an actual Civil Remedy Notice filed by an Uber passenger in an accident. The Uber passenger's attorney claimed that he had surgery to his lower back and the medical bills were over $200,000. Uber's insurance company, Progressive, responded by offering $2,500. And Uber's insurance company, Progressive, said that the injured person, Dos Santos, already received a fair offer from the at fault party's
insurance company. And Progressive claim that had asked the Uber
passenger's attorney for prior records.

In any back injury or neck injury case, expect the insurance company to wanna see your prior records. And if you fell at a hotel or theme park, like Universal Studios, you can search by the name
of the place where you fell. Now it has to be the legal name. For example, Universal Studios
would be NBC Universal, and you can then get an idea
of how they handle past claims. The fourth question that insurance adjusters
don't want you to ask in car accident and
personal injury claims is how much authority did you
request to settle this case for? In order for an insurance
adjuster to settle a case, they need to get authority. At some insurance companies, these adjusters already have authority without having to ask, but at other ones they
need to ask for authority. I heard that one of the
largest insurance companies in the United States cut down
their adjuster's authority from $100,000 to $10,000. This means that in order to
settle a personal injury case for any amount above $10,000, they have to ask their
manager for approval. To get approval from the manager, the adjuster has to
complete an evaluation.

This form gives you a
good idea of the things that adjusters look for when
deciding how much to pay you. Now, this form that you can see here is an updated evaluation form that the Hartford's attorneys complete to keep the adjusters advised. Now, even if the adjuster tells you how much they requested
settlement authority for, it doesn't mean you're going
to get paid this amount. I represented a man who was on a moped in Miami Beach, Florida when a taxi made an improper
U-turn in front of him. They crashed my client, had a deep bone bruise to
his upper arm, the humerus. The adjuster for the taxi's
insurance company told me that she had requested that her insurance company offer
the $125,000 policy limits. Unfortunately, she then
only offered $18,000 and we sued and ultimately
settled for $25,000. And in this case, my client
did not have a serious fracture and he didn't have surgery.

So the $25,000 was fair
value for the case. The fifth question that
adjusters don't want you to ask in personal injury
cases is what can I do for you to pay me more money in my case? Adjusters want to settle cases fast. They don't want cases
lingering and staying open. Now adjusters are overworked. Just look at what a
third-party administrator for Walmart said. Surveys of workers
compensation adjusters' show that even at a caseload of 130 files, adjusters consider themselves
in a reactive mode, being overwhelmed with phone calls, data entry, and email request.

Generally speaking, adjusters
are not gonna tell you how to increase the value of your case. They're not going to tell you, "Hey, you should get the 911 call. Maybe you'll hear my insured
admitting fault in it." They're not going to tell you, "Although you've sent
me the hospital bill, we still need the ER physician's bill, 'cause that's a separate bill and that's gonna add value to your case and result in a larger offer to you." If you're claiming that
you have a head injury or brain injury, they're
likely not gonna tell you, "Hey, you should treat
with the neuropsychologist.

That may add significant
value to your case." And if you're injured at an accident at a hotel or theme park or mall, they're not gonna tell you to go to Google or TripAdvisor and look for reviews that show other people
complaining of the same hazard that caused your injury. In this hotel slip and fall case here, you can see the insurance
adjuster telling me the reviews have been considered and she offered me $205,000. She was referring to the reviews that I had sent her showing
other people complaining that the area was slippery and had issues. The sixth question that adjusters
don't want you to ask is how much can you offer
me to settle my case? You will never know how
much the insurance adjuster could offer you to settle your case. The one exception is if they're paying you the policy limits, the policy limits are what they are.

The policy limits are the
most they have to pay you under the insurance policy. In some cases that I've
settled for fair value where my client wanted
a very fast settlement, after the settlement
I've asked the adjuster, "If I would have sued, would you have offered me more money?" And the adjuster will say, "I
would have asked my manager," and they probably would
have offered $5,000 more. But ultimately, it's the
client's decision when to settle and some clients want a fast settlement. This seventh question that
adjusters don't want you to ask in personal injury claims is how often do you settle a
case in less than three moves? That means three
counteroffers on their part.

Insurance claims involve negotiation. If you're not dealing with an insurance policy
limits settlement, insurance adjusters rarely settle a case in less than three moves. I know an insurance adjuster who worked at one of the
largest insurance companies in the United States and he told me his supervisor told them, "Never ever settle a case by
making less than three offers." Insurance companies know that some people don't
realize negotiation is part of a personal injury settlement. When negotiating, you need to be patient and never drop too much at one time. And please, whatever you do, do not tell the adjuster that
you want a certain amount. Tell them you need a certain amount. It's a lot stronger of
a negotiation position. When I say that insurance
adjusters don't settle cases in less than three moves,
that means typically if you were to demand
a $100,000 to settle, they may come back with $20,000, you then come down to 75,000,
they come up to 40,000, you come down to 60,000,
they come up to 50,000, perhaps you meet somewhere in the middle.

But don't expect an insurance adjuster to settle your case for fair
value in less than three moves. The eighth question that
insurance adjusters don't want you to ask in car accidents, slip and falls, and personal injury claims is do you like to settle for less money? Insurance companies wanna settle
for as little as possible, but don't take my word for it. Let's look at an actual document in a case where bad faith
was alleged against Geico. The Geico regional claims
manager said, "BI ALP," that means bodily injury,
average claim payouts, "dropped by 1% and UM," that's uninsured motorist insurance, "average loss payouts,"
average claim paid out, "improved by 5.2%. Nice job on both." You can see that this
claims manager was happy that the average loss payout that Geico was paying out had decreased. In other words, the injured
people were getting less money and Geico was saving money. Remember, insurance
companies run on profit.

The more profit they make, the more their shareholders benefit. The ninth question that insurance
adjusters don't want you to ask in injury claims is, are you going to fight my case? Just because you call an insurance company or a claim is reported and they tell you that
there's a claim number, or even if they tell you
they've accepted liability for the accident, that does not mean they're
not going to fight your case. They may accept liability for
an accident but they'll argue that your injuries are not
related to the accident, so what good is that for
your personal injury claim? Or they'll argue that your injuries aren't as bad as you're claiming they are. You know when an adjuster's
not fighting your case when they're offering
you fair settlement value for their case, but until that happens, do not think that just
because you're dealing with a sweet insurance
adjuster, who says thank you every time you send them
a message record or bill, that does not mean they're
going to pay you fair value for your injury.

I have dealt with some of the
nicest insurance adjusters who would thank me for sending
medical records and bills and thank me for my time every time I spoke with them on the phone, and then they ultimately
denied liability in the case. I sued them and we ultimately
got fair value for my client. Watch these videos here to learn how to get the largest settlement in the shortest amount of time..