When the phone rings and it’s an adjuster from the at-fault party’s insurance company, they will likely sound friendly and helpful. They might say they are just calling to check on you and see how you’re doing. While this might be partially true, it’s important to remember their primary job.
An insurance adjuster is a trained professional whose goal is to resolve your claim for the lowest possible amount. They work for the insurance company, and their performance is often measured by how much money they save the company.
This doesn’t make them bad people, but it does mean their interests are directly opposed to yours. You need fair compensation to cover medical bills, lost wages, and other damages. They need to protect their company’s profits. This fundamental conflict of interest is why knowing how insurance adjusters minimize your claim is so crucial for anyone filing a personal injury claim in Oklahoma.
Adjusters use a variety of proven methods to reduce the value of a claim. Being able to recognize these strategies can help you protect yourself from settling for less than you deserve.
One of the most common tactics is offering a settlement very quickly after the accident. This might happen within days, long before you understand the full extent of your injuries. The offer might seem like a lot of money at first, especially when medical bills are starting to arrive.
However, this is often a calculated move. The adjuster is hoping you will accept the offer before you:
Accepting a settlement is final. Once you sign the release, you give up your right to seek any more compensation for that accident, even if your injuries turn out to be much more serious than you first thought. This is why it is so important to resist the temptation of “quick cash” and fully assess your situation first.
Soon after an accident, the adjuster will likely ask you to provide a recorded statement about what happened. They may present this as a standard, routine part of the process. While you are required to cooperate with your own insurance company, you are under no legal obligation to give a recorded statement to the other party’s insurer.
This is a tactic designed to get you to say something that could hurt your claim. Adjusters are trained to ask questions that can be confusing or lead you to unintentionally:
It’s best to politely decline to give a recorded statement until you have had the opportunity to discuss your case with an attorney. You can provide basic factual information without agreeing to be recorded.
To evaluate your injuries, the insurance company will need access to your medical records related to the accident. However, adjusters often send a medical authorization form that is extremely broad. It may give them permission to access your entire medical history, including records that have nothing to do with your current injuries.
Why do they do this? They are on a fishing expedition. They want to search your past for any pre-existing conditions or old injuries. If they find one, they may argue that your current pain and suffering are related to that old condition, not the recent accident. This is a classic way that insurance adjusters minimize your claim by creating doubt about the cause of your injuries.
You should never sign a medical authorization without carefully reviewing it, preferably with a lawyer who can help you limit its scope to only the records relevant to the accident.
Another way adjusters devalue a claim is by directly challenging the seriousness of your injuries or the necessity of your medical treatment. They might suggest that you are “over-treating” or that your doctor is recommending unnecessary procedures.
They may also hire their own medical experts to review your records and state that your injuries are not as severe as your own doctors claim. This can happen even if you are in significant pain and following your doctor’s orders precisely.
They may also monitor your social media accounts, looking for photos or posts that seem to contradict your injury claims—like a picture of you at a gathering at Tulsa’s Gathering Place when you’ve claimed to have debilitating back pain. It is a good practice to be mindful of your social media presence while your claim is ongoing.
Sometimes, the adjuster’s most effective tactic is to do nothing at all. They might delay returning your calls, lose your paperwork, or constantly ask for more information they already have. These delays are often intentional. The insurance company knows that the longer the process drags on, the more financial pressure you will feel. They hope that you will become so frustrated and desperate that you will eventually accept any offer they make, just to be done with it.
This delay tactic also has a more serious risk. In Oklahoma, there is a time limit for filing a personal injury lawsuit, known as the statute of limitations. Here, you generally have two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. If the insurance company can delay your claim long enough, you could miss this critical deadline and lose your right to pursue compensation in court forever.
Even if the other driver was clearly at fault, the insurance adjuster may try to shift some of the blame onto you. They might dissect the accident report or your statements to find any possible way to argue that you were partially responsible for what happened.
This is particularly important in Oklahoma because of the state’s modified comparative negligence rule. Under this rule, you can still recover damages even if you were partially at fault, but your compensation will be reduced by your percentage of fault.
For example, if you are found to be 20% at fault for a car wreck on the Broken Arrow Expressway, your total compensation will be reduced by 20%. However, if you are found to be 51% or more at fault, you are barred from recovering any compensation at all. Insurance adjusters know this law well and use it to reduce or deny claims.
Perhaps the biggest red flag is when an insurance adjuster tells you that you don’t need a lawyer. They might say that hiring an attorney will only complicate things or that you’ll lose a large portion of your settlement to legal fees.
This is a self-serving tactic. Adjusters know that people who have legal representation typically receive significantly higher settlements than those who do not. They want to deal with you directly because they know they have more experience and knowledge of the system, giving them a significant advantage.
Knowing how insurance adjusters minimize your claim is the first step. The next is taking action to protect your rights. While every case is different, here are some general steps you can take after an injury caused by someone else’s negligence:
Taking these steps can help create a more level playing field when you are dealing with a large insurance corporation.
Here are some common questions people have when dealing with insurance companies after an accident.
It is part of an adjuster’s training to build rapport and appear friendly. While their pleasant demeanor may be genuine, remember that their professional obligation is to their employer. They are gathering information to evaluate your claim from their company’s perspective. It is wise to remain polite but cautious and avoid sharing any information that is not essential.
While not every initial offer is unreasonably low, it is very often less than the full value of the claim. Insurance companies are businesses, and their first offer is typically a starting point for negotiations. It is calculated to be just attractive enough that an uninformed person might accept it, saving the company money. It is almost always a good idea to have any offer reviewed before accepting.
There is no exact formula for calculating pain and suffering. Adjusters often use software that considers factors like the type of injury, the amount of medical bills, and the length of treatment. However, these formulas cannot truly capture the human cost of an injury. An experienced attorney can help present a much more complete picture of how the injury has affected your quality of life to argue for a fair value.
You should never sign any document from an insurance company without reading it carefully and understanding exactly what you are authorizing. Many medical release forms are intentionally broad. It is best to consult with an attorney who can help you provide the necessary medical information without giving the insurer access to your entire, unrelated medical past.
This is a common scare tactic. Most personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. This means they only get paid if they successfully recover money for you, and their fee is a percentage of the total settlement or award. Since studies show that claimants with lawyers receive substantially larger settlements, many people end up with more money in their pockets even after paying legal fees.
Dealing with the tactics insurance adjusters use to minimize your claim can be a difficult and frustrating process. An experienced personal injury attorney understands these strategies and knows how to counter them. They can handle all communications with the insurance company, gather the evidence needed to build a strong case, and negotiate for a settlement that fully and fairly compensates you for all of your losses.
If you have been injured in an accident in Tulsa or anywhere in Oklahoma, you don’t have to face the insurance company by yourself. The attorneys at Graves McLain Injury Lawyers are committed to protecting the rights of injured people. We have the experience and resources to stand up to large insurance corporations and fight for the justice you deserve. We handle cases on a contingency fee basis, so you pay nothing unless we win your case. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your situation and learn how we can help.
When injury victims need a law firm with a reputation for excellence, turn to Graves McLain Injury Lawyers. We are a top-rated personal injury firm determined to be the best. With decades of award-winning representation, our clients recover the compensation they need to put their lives back together.
