Why Your Car Accident Claim May Be Delayed and What You Can Do About It

Here’s why the insurance company may be delaying your claim and what you can do about it.

Insurance companies are for-profit organizations, meaning they often use different tricks to reduce their costs and avoid paying compensation. The law prohibits insurance companies from acting in bad faith and purposely prolonging the entire process. However, agents have their ways of try to work around the law and they will use any excuse to lower your settlement or even deny your claim. That’s why it’s always a good idea to work with an experienced St. Louis car accident lawyer who knows how to negotiate with insurance adjusters and get you fair compensation.  

Here’s why the insurance company may be delaying your claim and what you can do about it.

It Puts More Pressure on the Victim

The piling medical bills, inability to get back to work quickly and the stress of recovery from injury put a lot of financial pressure on car accident victims and insurance companies know that all too well. So, they delay the claim process to force you to accept a lower settlement than what you would actually be entitled to. 

Here are some of the most common delaying tactics insurance adjusters might use:

• They May Request Unnecessary Documentation: Insurance adjusters know how to win your trust and make you believe that they have their best interest at heart. That’s why victims often believe them when they say that certain documents are necessary to the claim. In reality, however, they may be asking you for unnecessary documentation to delay the claim process. For example, they may be asking you for your medical history, insisting that they need it for your claim. In reality, they are only doing it to delay the process and look to information that could allow them to deny your claim.

• They Skip Certain Information on Your Policy: Insurance adjusters rely on the fact that most people won’t read through their policy very closely. Sometimes, they don’t provide accurate information regarding your policy benefits or they fail to give you a good explanation for why your claim is delayed or denied. 

An Experienced Lawyer Can Help You Fight Back

If you’ve been injured in a car accident, you likely have a lot of things to worry about: your health, the time you will have to miss from work, treatment, surgery, and so on. Most likely, you don’t have the mental energy to keep an eye on what insurance adjusters are doing and fight back when you notice that they are stalling your claim.

An experienced St. Louis car accident attorney can see directly through these delaying tactics and force the insurance company to speed up the process. An attorney can help you understand how insurance companies work and what you need to do to avoid becoming a victim of their tactics.