When you find yourself involved in a New Jersey car crash that someone else caused, you may expect insurance to cover injury-related expenses. If the insurance company knows it is not going to be able to outright deny your claim, but fears how much it may have to pay you if you take your case to court, it may try to push you into accepting a lowball offer.
According to the National Law Review, it is common for insurers to coerce you into accepting their initial claims so that they do not have to pay you as much. They may use the following strategies in their efforts to reduce how much they have to give you.
Argue you were responsible
Insurance companies may try to suggest that you played a role in the wreck so that they do not have to pay you as much as they would if you were not negligent. Some insurers do this to make the original offers they make seem more appealing than they did at first.
Argue you exaggerated your injuries or had unnecessary treatments
Insurance companies may also try to say that the injuries you sought treatment for were really the result of other circumstances and not the recent car wreck. They may also try to say that the medical treatment you received after the crash was unnecessary or excessive.
Insurance companies make profits by collecting premiums, rather than paying out large claims. Thus, an insurer’s goal is typically to minimize how much it has to give you, and it may use these and other strategies in its efforts to do so.
