Massachusetts Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation Law Blog
Reasons Why A Personal Injury Claim Is Not Settling
The aftermath of an injury brings on a raft of issues. If you are pursuing a claim for personal injuries stemming from the accident, an issue you may be facing is whether or not to settle. The vast majority of cases do settle. Each case is of course different. Generally, the more issues and problems a case has, the harder it becomes to settle it. Here are some factors that oftentimes present challenges with settling accident cases.
The Case Has Been Denied By The Insurance Company
Before any case settles, liability must be established. With personal injury cases, it must be shown that there was negligence on the part of the person or company that caused the accident. Oftentimes slip and fall cases are denied by insurance companies.
When bringing an insurance claim for money damages, if the insurance company does not believe its insured is liable, then no offer likely will be extended. Sometimes however the insurance carrier will pay on a claim previously denied if new evidence is presented.
The Settlement Offer Is Too Low
Sometimes the two sides to a claim just cannot agree on the value of a case. This is quite common. With time a negotiation can be reached with compromise by the parties. A great way of resolving these cases where a stalemate is reached is through mediation or arbitration.
There Is No Available Insurance To Pursue
For some cases there is no insurance to pursue. For example, if you are injured in a car accident caused by a New Hampshire driver, the driver may not have insurance to pursue since New Hampshire does not require car insurance. Or, if there is a dog bite and the dog owner does not have either renters or homeowners insurance, then the case may be hard to settle. The reason is because if there is no insurance and the person responsible for the accident does not have money to offer a settlement, then resolution of the case may not be possible.