If you’re dealing with car damage or personal injuries after an accident, chance are good that sooner or later you’ll find yourself face to face with a car accident insurance adjuster. Insurance adjusters are there to help in determining the value of what was lost and what is due to you. You should be aware that the adjuster who is examining you and/ or your vehicle is performing a service for you in providing an estimate of the damage… but the adjuster’s true interest may lie elsewhere.
Insurance Adjusters... A Case of Who Signs the Paycheck?
It’s important to understand that there are three main “types” of insurance adjusters:
- One is a public adjuster, who generally works as part of the city government and may offer himself out on jobs related to local buildings, weather damage, or other city-related insurance cases. Most people won’t deal with a public adjuster on a regular basis, but will come into contact with one of the other two types: insurance-employed adjusters, and independent contractors.
- Insurance-employed adjusters, just as the name implies, are employed by an insurance company in order to provide the claims service. “Great,” you might be thinking. “My insurance company is taking good care of me. So what’s the catch?” The catch is, of course, that your insurance company, while they will give you the coverage you’re owed, doesn’t want to pay out any more than they have to. An insurance adjuster is thus well-trained to negotiate the lowest amounts he can in terms of the cost of damages and repairs; he isn’t doing this to scam the customer, but merely on behalf of the insurance company (the people signing his paycheck).
- Independent contractor adjusters are very similar to insurance-employed ones; they are working “freelance” for the insurance companies, so have less of a responsibility to them, but will likely give you the same experience.
You've Been Given an Offer... Now What?
So… is the estimate you get from an insurance adjuster fair? Probably not, if you’re defining fair in terms of “is this the most that I could get for this damage?” or even “Is this genuinely what it might cost to fix this damage?” You will get compensated, and it will be in the ballpark of the actual value of what was lost, but if the adjuster knows what he’s doing it will be on the low side of the spectrum.
So if you’re looking for a fair offer, it may be your job to do some homework. Get estimates on the damage from local repair shops, look up the cash value of your car, ask the adjuster for an itemized list if you don’t agree with the numbers he presents. There’s no rule that says you have to take an offer given to you by an insurance adjuster. If you think you can get more than what he’s offering, you’re probably right: the question is whether you want to go through the legwork to do so.
Getting Help
Car accident attorneys have ample experience dealing with insurance adjusters and with car wrecks and damage. You should strongly consider hiring an attorney who can help you to deal with your insurance adjuster and who can help you to know whether or not a settlement offer made to you is fair.
