Massachusetts Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation Law Blog
With respect to insurance adjusters, one thing I have not discussed on this blog is how tricky and manipulative they can be. After all, that is their job. They are paid to settle your Massachusetts accident claim for as little as possible whether it be an auto accident, slip and fall, dog bite, or any other kind of accident. They will, soon after the accident, contact you and try to encourage you to accept a ridiculously low offer of settlement. And, they will tell you not to hire an attorney because when an attorney becomes involved, the insurance company will end up paying more on your claim because they know the attorney can sue them.
I found the following on Free Advice which does a good job of explaining just how cunning insurance adjusters can be with respect to Massachusetts personal injury claims:
- The investigator or adjuster from the other side’s insurance company may be very pleasant, appear to be concerned and even try to be your friend. He or she may be a wonderful person, coach the local soccer team, and belong to your church or civic association. But always remember his or her job is to protect the insurance company, to find a reason NOT to pay you, or if they must, to make sure you receive as little as the insurance company can possibly get away with, and ideally, to try to "make the matter go away".
This Jimmy Stewart type line gives you an idea as to how some adjusters operate. "Shucks, I know you’re hurting, but you don’t want to make a big deal about this, and bother your friends and neighbors, do you?"
The investigator or adjuster may try to get you to minimize the nature and extent of the pain ("Shucks, it didn’t hurt that much, did it") or the impact of any permanent injury ("You’ll be able to play the violin using your left hand just as well…"), or accept full or partial responsibility for the accident when it was not your fault ("I guess you should have paid more attention…") or get you to believe it was just one of those things ("If you took the dog for a walk earlier…."), or tell you how difficult it would be to recover ("If I were you I’d accept this. You’ll never get more and the courts have a 7 year back-up and you’ll never be able to hire a good lawyer, and they are so expensive…."). Hogwash. Those are insurance adjuster tricks that an attorney can help you avoid.