Colorado’s roads are no strangers to accidents. In 2024, there are more than 96,000 collisions.
When the dust settles after a car accident, the financial and emotional aftermath can be overwhelming for victims and their families. While the idea of getting fair compensation might appear straightforward, the reality tends to be far more complex.
Insurance companies are big businesses – and they tend to use certain strategies to minimize their payouts to victims. In many cases, the first strategy is offering a lowball settlement in response to personal injury claims.
Understanding why and how insurance providers operate this way is crucial to protecting your interests.
Manning Herington Accident & Injury Attorneys – based in Denver, Colorado – is committed to advocating for car accident victims’ rights and protecting their well-being, regardless of what auto insurers offer.
In this article, we want to shed light on the tactics some insurance companies use to make lowball settlement offers and what you can do about them.
What Is a Lowball Settlement Offer?
A lowball settlement is an insurance settlement that does not adequately cover damages, losses, and ongoing medical treatment. This tactic is intended to save the insurance company money, at the expense of providing rightful compensation to the injured party.
When you’re working on settling a car accident case, you may assume the insurance company wants what’s best for you. In most cases, their priority is to maximize their bottom line – which involves minimizing your payout for bodily injuries and other consequences.
Let’s dive a bit deeper to understand why these companies might encourage you to accept a lowball settlement.
What You Should Know: Insurers are NOT on Your Side
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Protecting Their Own Interests
Insurance companies are like any other big business: they’re in it to make money. Maximizing profits is their top priority, which often comes at the expense of car accident victims. Lowering settlement offers is a relatively common way to achieve those ends.
Insurance companies frequently work to close claims quickly with the minimum payout wherever possible. Working on behalf of those insurers, the adjusters are trained to undervalue claims and convince victims to accept low offers before they talk to a personal injury lawyer. This is often sold as a “quick and easy” resolution.
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Speaking with Unrepresented Victims
When representatives from an insurance company deal directly with victims – who don’t have attorney representation – they may try to “strong-arm” the individual and offer a minimal payoff.
Insurance adjusters may use urgency, misinformation, or deceptive practices to pressure victims into accepting low settlements. For instance, they might downplay the value of your situation, ignoring necessary medical treatment or bypassing damage.
Now, this isn’t to make you feel bad for handling your car accident claim alone with the insurance company. However, we do hope to paint a picture of the truth about what victims may face when attempting to settle an insurance claim without a car accident attorney.
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Quick Closures and Finality
Returning to insurance companies’ goals of completing claims as quickly as possible, a common practice is to rush victims through the insurance claims process and avoid drawn-out investigations – even if this means offering less-than-adequate settlements.
From the insurance company’s point of view, this tactic helps avoid prolonged and potentially costly legal actions. But for victims, there’s more at stake.
Accepting a lowball auto accident settlement offer without consulting a car accident lawyer can have serious repercussions. A fast-tracked claim could mean overlooked damages, insufficient compensation for long-term rehabilitation, or neglected emotional suffering.
Victims who are pressured into accepting quick settlements often find themselves unable to cover medical bills, lost wages, and other hardships. Car insurance coverage for damages (both current and future needs) may not match, leading to further financial burdens down the line.
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Ignoring Long-Term Consequences
Rehabilitative medical costs and other post-accident damages are easy to underestimate. Insurance adjusters may disregard the full scope of your economic and non-economic damages.
The damage a car accident causes physically, emotionally, and financially should never be undervalued or undercut. Current medical costs, future medical expenses, rehabilitation, mental health counselling, etc. can create lasting financial strain – especially if a future settlement isn’t in line with increasing costs.
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Misrepresenting Information
Why do insurance companies misrepresent information?
Simply put, they can use omissions or misinformation in their favor to lowball unguarded victims and pay less upfront. The result is usually savings for them but more financial stress for the injured victim.
Insurance adjusters might downplay the costs associated with a car accident (known or unknown). They might try to dismiss certain damages as minor or irrelevant. For example, if the accident caused you emotional trauma and you are seeking mental health services, the insurance company may try to argue this is unnecessary.
Unfortunately, without a personal injury attorney, victims may end up signing away rights or accepting offers that leave them unable to address the actual costs and consequences of their accident.
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Navigating the System
Handling your Colorado accident claim without an experienced personal injury lawyer tends to be an uphill battle – and leaves you vulnerable to receiving low offers.
Insurance companies are known for complicating or delaying the claims process – with the hope victims will simply give up and accept a lowball settlement. Whether it’s unnecessary paperwork, arbitrary delays, or aggressive tactics, every move is geared toward undercutting your settlement.
An attorney’s primary goal is protecting YOUR best interests. Proper representation often increases the final car accident settlement offer significantly, often beyond the initial figures proposed by the insurance company.
Accepting a Lowball Settlement
Once a final settlement has been accepted, victims essentially waive their right to sue the insurance company or negotiate for additional compensation.
What does this mean?
A disappointing reality is that you could be locked into an agreement that doesn’t account for all your medical bills and financial burdens stemming from the accident. For instance, future insurance settlement amounts may not reflect the true cost of rehabilitation or lost wages, resulting in lingering out-of-pocket expenses.
This finality is why some insurance companies offer lowball settlements — they want to cut costs and close the case.
Lowball Settlements Come at a Cost for Victims
Long-Term Financial Strain
As a common theme in this piece, accepting a lowball settlement typically means you are short-changed on the actual value of your claim. The ripple effects of this shortfall can be devastating.
A victim can quickly find themselves without adequate insurance settlement amounts to cover current medical bills, ongoing treatment, or other unexpected costs. Unanticipated expenses post-accident can place people in severe financial distress, compounding the stress already caused by their accident.
Frustrated with a Lowball Settlement Offer? Our Attorneys Can Help.
If you’re working on settling a car accident claim and not receiving the compensation and damage payments you deserve, you have every right to pursue legal help.
Manning Herington Accident & Injury Attorneys works closely with car accident victims across Colorado to bridge the gaps between what insurers offer versus the maximum compensation. Whether you’re dealing with lowball settlement offers, Colorado state laws, or persistent insurance adjusters, we’ll guide you through your accident case.
Your car accident settlement deserves fair compensation.
Get in touch with a Colorado auto accident lawyer team today.
