This is part of our continued coverage on my wife’s injury claim with Progressive
After completing her therapy with a local chiropractor, we gathered all of the medical bills and records from the hospital and the chiropractor. The total amount of the medical bills was just over $3,800. I put all of the bills and records in chronological order and put a soft demand letter together and faxed it all over to the adjuster.
One week after faxing the demand package to the adjuster I called him up to confirm that he had received everything. He confirmed that he had in fact received my fax and that he would need some time to evaluate the information. I asked when I could expect to hear from him and he said a couple of weeks.
A few weeks passed and I had not heard from the adjuster so I decided that I would follow up with him again. He informed me that he still had not evaluated my wife’s claim. (Note: This is typical from adjusters as they have lots of claims and the reason why you must be diligent on your part to keep your claim on top of their list of claims to work on.) He did mention that he would try and get me an offer in the next couple of days. Sure enough, a few days pasted and he called with the first offer.
“Let me tell you, I think this is a fair offer”, he said. “I can offer your wife $2,000 plus all of her medical bills. If you want to settle, I can have the check ready today.”
I said, “Thanks for taking the time to evaluate our claim. Let me discuss it with my wife and I will get back to you.”
Of course the adjuster thinks $2,000 is fair. Most adjusters would think $10 was a fair offer if they could get someone to sign a release. What they fail to realize is the person that went through the pain and suffering of the injury probably does not think any amount is fair. I mentioned the offer to my wife and sure enough, she was insulted. I informed her that this is typical for adjusters to offer a low amount and to not worry about it too much. Knowing what I know about the value of claims, I knew he had more money.
After helping my wife understand how claims are evaluated, we decided that we would not accept an amount less than $4,000 plus all of the medical bills. I called the adjuster and left him a voice mail indicating that we would be declining his offer and that we would be making a counteroffer of $7,000 plus the medical bills.
He called later that night in shock. “You don’t really think her claim is worth $7,000 do you?”
I said, “Well, all I know is that we are not going to accept your offer of $2,000. Why don’t you try and increase your offer and we will re-evaluate our position.”
He proceed to increase to $2,800. I decreased to $6,000. He increased to $3,500 and I decreased to $5,200. He then increased to $3,800 and I decreased to $4,500.
“$3,800 is the best I can do,” he said.
“It’s too bad we are so close yet you won’t be getting a signed release from us. I really wish we could have gotten this file off your desk, but we are looking for a specific amount and really aren’t willing to settle for anything under that amount. If you can talk to your supervisor and let her know how close we are, maybe we can reach some middle ground.”
“Let me talk to my supervisor and get back with you,” he said.
A few minutes later he called back and informed me that his supervisor would be willing to offer $4,000 plus the medical bills if we would sign the release in the morning. I talked it over with my wife and we agreed to the settlement offer. The total money offer was $7,800 ($4,000 in general damages plus $3,800 in medical bills) which is 2.05 times the medical bills.
You will note that a lot happened from start to finish on my wife’s injury claim. You can find every tactic used in my negotiations with the adjuster and information on how to evaluate your personal injury claim using our Settlement Booklet™.
Tags: wife's claim
