Archive for the ‘ Personal Injury’ Category

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How Claims Adjusters Handle Your Personal Injury Claim

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

Your Orange County personal injury attorney will be invaluable when it comes to dealing with the insurance adjuster handling your injury claim. It is often very intimidating for individuals to deal with insurance adjusters, whose job is to downplay your injury and get you to sign a release of your claims for as little money as possible.

Discussion of the Case
Prior to settling your claim, it is normal for insurance adjusters to discuss their case with their colleagues and supervisors. This is especially true for more difficult and unique cases involving hard numbers. In order for you to maximize your compensation, you need to talk dollar amounts with respect to medical bills, treatments, and loss of income.

Your Orange County personal injury attorney will also provide the adjusters with minute details of your case to increase your chances of a bigger settlement. Your attorney will provide detailed documentation that the insurance adjuster needs in order to elevate the status of your claim.

Settlement
The amount of time an adjustor spends reviewing a claim during the negotiation process generally depends on the difficulty of the case. However, even the most difficult of cases cannot take up too much time.

Moreover, the insurance adjuster cannot settle a claim with authorization from either his or her supervisor or claims manager. Usually, authorization to settle a case is permitted in small dollar increments.

If you have been involved in an accident and have suffered injury, it is in your best interest to consult with an experienced Orange County personal injury attorney to adequately present the necessary evidence to the insurance adjuster to settle your case for what it is truly worth and you deserve. Call dedicated Orange County personal injury attorney Samer Habbas at 888-848-5084 today to schedule a free initial consultation.

Settlement Negotiations Will Depend on the Insurer’s Policies and Philosophy

Monday, February 20th, 2012

It may seem strange, but the process of negotiating with an insurance company for a personal injury case depends on the specifics of the insurance carrier and its policies and philosophy. Different companies take different approaches, and you may not understand exactly what kind of company you are dealing with. An Irvine personal injury attorney can help you understand the insurer you are negotiating with.

Claims adjusters in high-profile, large, national carriers tend to be very conservative and loyal to the philosophy of their company. They may seem stubborn or rigid, but you and your Irvine personal injury will not be able change their minds about being so conservative, it’s just in the company culture. Additionally, lower- and mid-tier adjusters have very limited authority, and every move they make is carefully scrutinized by supervisors and managers. So your Irvine personal injury attorney is really negotiating with their claims manager who likely has just as conservative a mindset. Such adjusters are fastidious in their work and have no problem researching a claim in depth and looking at prior medical treatments and tax returns.

Adjusters from small local companies can also be very conservative, because the companies don’t have as much revenue and only a small premium pool to use. A case of just $20,000 or $30,000 can be a very large case to these companies.

Conservative adjusters will not be swayed by documentation about pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. They only want to see hard figures and objective data.

If you have further questions about how to deal with an insurance company, contact dedicated Irvine personal injury attorney Samer Habbas at  (888) 848-5084 for a free initial consultation.

Claims Adjusters Often Juggle Heavy Personal Injury Caseloads

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

If you have been injured in an accident, you may find that dealing with your insurance company is a less-than-pleasant experience. The process of how the insurance company handles your claim and communicate with you may seem inexplicable and bureaucratic. If so, an Irvine personal injury attorney may be able to help you understand how insurance companies work and what you can expect.

When an insurance company receives a claim, the first thing that happens to the claim is that it is assigned to a claims adjuster by territory or size. Accident attorneys in small states (with a population of 2 million or less) usually get to know the adjusters for the national and local carriers around them, which can be beneficial. In larger states, however, there are so many turnovers of adjusters that your case may be handled by two or more adjusters over the course of the process.

Adjusters are busy people, and they check their files regularly in order to maintain a “diary” of their cases to try to keep them moving in a timely fashion and not keep any one waiting for too long. However, an adjuster may have as many as one hundred to two hundred files going at once, which means they may only spend a few minutes per week on a typical claim and may not return your Irvine personal injury attorney’s calls right away.

Adjusters are evaluated on the basis of: how many cases they settle within or below their authorized settlement amount; how quickly they can settle a case; and how little money is spent in the course of settling the case.

If you have further questions about how insurance adjusters work, contact experienced Irvine personal injury attorney Samer Habbas at  (888) 848-5084 for a free initial consultation.

Attorney Tricks to Get You to Reveal Too Much at a Deposition

Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Engaging You in “Normal” Conversation
Most witnesses at a deposition are represented by a qualified Orange County personal injury attorney, or, at the very least, they have been prepared by one. This preparation does not consist of telling the witness what to say, but rather how to say things. First and foremost is to answer only the question asked, only in the narrowest of terms necessary to answer the question, and then to stop and add no further details. 

At the onset of the deposition, the witness is fully focused on this mindset, because it has been repeatedly emphasized by his attorney. However, opposing counsel, the lawyer who will question the witness, also is very much aware of this very standardized preparation. The questioning lawyer will do all in his or her power to break down the witness’ prepared method of answering and instead lead the witness to expansive answers that volunteer information not asked by the wording of the question.

How is that done? It is actually easier than it may seem at first, due to the nature of how people typically communicate. That is, it is more natural to be expansive and add more information when a asked a question than be narrow and guarded in your response. The fact of the matter is that the witness has been prepared to act unnaturally. All the questioning lawyer need do is to get the witness to act naturally as if the deposition were a typical social conversation, not a legal proceeding under oath. The person will usually then forget what his Orange County personal injury attorney has told him.

One tactic employed is to ask open-ended questions, such as, “Tell me about the accident.” There is no way for a witness to answer this question that will follow the preparation guidelines. If the witness hesitates, the lawyer may follow-up with something like, “Well, just start from the beginning.” If the witness does start to answer and then stops, the lawyer may the asked, “What happened next?”

Each question by the lawyer is open-ended and often a witness is worn down by the process. Remember, the lawyer has likely deposed many witnesses and is good at it. It is easy for a witness to forget the preparation and fall back into normal conversational patterns. A good lawyer can have you talking as you do in your everyday life in no time.

However, an experienced Orange County personal injury attorney who has prepared the witness will not just sit there and let that happen. The attorney may have to interrupt the witness’ answer in an effort not only to keep out the unnecessary information, but also to get the witness back on track.

Sometimes, the attorney sounds somewhat harsh in these interruptions. The attorney may instruct the witness, “Pay attention. That wasn’t the question asked.” Or, he might say something like, “You’ve answered that question, now wait for another one.” Often, a witness may be taken aback by this tactic and not fully understand.

However, this may be what is absolutely necessary for a successful deposition. A good Orange County personal injury attorney will have explained this to the witness before the deposition began, so it will come as no surprise.  The point is, the attorney and the witness are on the same side and have the same interests in the case.

For a free consultation with skilled Orange County personal injury attorney Samer Habbas, simply call (888) 848-5084.

Your Conduct During Your Testimony

Monday, February 6th, 2012

One of the most crucial points to remember when testifying in your personal injury case is that you should never volunteer any information. Always wait until the question is posed, answer the exact question asked, and then stop. Any competent Orange County personal injury attorney will surely share with you this vitally important advice.

Volunteering information will not help your case in any way, and it might actually harm your case by giving the opposing attorney a chance to think of additional questions to ask you. So, a good rule of thumb is to answer with a yes or no if the question can honestly be answered with such a response and do not volunteer a further answer. Your Orange County personal injury attorney will help you prepare for testimony beforehand.

Additionally, do not ramble or provide long-winded answers at trial. Instead, answer the questions in the same manner that you would if you were filling out a written form. People who have been injured, or who are related to someone who has been injured because of someone else’s negligence, naturally deem it necessary to tell their whole story, even if they are not asked for the whole story.

For instance, suppose the opposing attorney asks you where you were going at the time of the accident. An inappropriate answer would be: “I was going to work, but I typically would have been at home. See, my friend’s car had to be put in the shop that day, and I dropped her off at work…” While all of that might be factual and helpful to your case, you must resist the urge to go into detail. The more suitable response to the question would have been: “I was on my way to work.” Keep your responses short, simple and to the point.

If you need a skilled Orange County personal injury attorney, please call Samer Habbas at  (888) 848-5084 for a free consultation.

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