If you have suffered injuries as a result of someone else’s negligence, your best option is filing a personal injury claim – in pursuit of the compensation to which you are entitled. Addressing your physical, financial, and emotional losses head-on can help you heal, but if the at-fault party’s insurance provider refuses to investigate your claim and to negotiate with you in good faith, it makes the path forward that much more challenging. If you’re in a situation in which the insurer fails to investigate your claim, finding a personal injury lawyer in Austin for the professional legal counsel you need is well advised.
What’s in This Guide
- The Insurance Company
- Your Personal Injury Claim
- Going to Trial
- The Losses You’ve Suffered
- The Insurance Company’s Practices
The Insurance Company
The insurance company that is handling your claim is – at its core – a for-profit business that does what it can to keep those profits as robust as possible. Toward this end, it has a wide range of techniques to help keep settlements like yours as low as it can get away with, which sometimes includes failing to investigate a claim in the first place. The motivation behind this tactic is offloading those Claimants who lose faith in their personal injury claim, the claims process, or both – and who simply give up as a result. Don’t be one of these claimants.
Your Personal Injury Claim
If you work closely with an experienced Austin personal injury attorney, you will understand the strengths of your claim (which are determined by supporting evidence) and its challenges, which can provide you with the peace of mind and drive to fight back. The most important point to remember is that the insurance company does not have the final say in determining whether your claim has legal merit – the law does. This means that if the involved insurance company shuts your claim down, you have the right to file a lawsuit against that insurance company. If your personal injury attorney believes in your claim, you should also believe in it.
Going to Trial
The thought of going to trial (when you’re about as vulnerable as you may have ever been) may strike fear in you, but it’s important to note that the vast majority of personal injury claims – even those in which the insurer fails to investigate your claim – are settled out of court. In fact, the act of filing a lawsuit may inspire that insurance company to reconsider its stance and to become more amenable to fair negotiations. Don’t let the fear of going to trial stop you from going after just compensation, and if your claim does ultimately go to trial, your personal injury attorney will help to ensure that you’re well prepared to do so.
The Losses You’ve Suffered
If you have been injured by the negligence of someone else, the losses you suffer (called damages in relation to personal injury law) can be immense.
Medical Expenses
Your medical costs alone can be overwhelming (and they can also be ongoing). Some of the most common medical expenses include:
- Emergency care and transportation
- Surgical care and follow-up appointments
- Medical treatments, procedures, and tests
- Hospital stays
- Medical care from doctors, specialists, and other medical professionals
- Pain management
- Rehabilitation
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Prescription medications
- Adaptive physical devices
- Home health care
- Assistance with the activities of daily living (if you suffer a catastrophic injury)
If your injuries lead to secondary health concerns, the associated medical costs can be even more extensive. Watching these medical bills pile up in the face of an insurance company that is nonresponsive can be especially discouraging.
Lost Income
While you tend to your physical recovery, you can expect to experience a decrease in earnings, and if your ability to do your job and/or to grow your career is affected, you could also be facing a loss in earning potential.
[Learn More] What Evidence May Help Prove Lost Income in an Austin Injury Case?
Your Pain and Suffering
The emotional consequences of being injured by someone else’s negligence can seriously compound all the other losses you experience and should not be discounted or overlooked in your personal injury claim.
The insurance company recognizes exactly how difficult these damages are to handle and exactly how vulnerable you are as a result, and it is likely taking this into careful consideration in its brazen move of failing to investigate your personal injury claim.
The Insurance Company’s Practices
In its effort to keep its profits as healthy as possible, the insurance company may engage in any number of less-than-forthright practices – in addition to simply denying your claim outright. Consider the following:
- Artificially dragging out or complicating the already-challenging claims process (there are laws against these practices in the State of Texas, and your attorney will skillfully fight to ensure they are upheld)
- Casting doubt on the severity of your claimed damages
- Shifting fault away from its policyholder (the party whose negligence left you injured) and toward you (even if you are up to 50 percent at fault for the accident that leaves you injured, you can seek the percentage of compensation for which the other party is responsible in the State of Texas)
- Offering an early settlement that doesn’t come close to covering your full range of losses but that you might be tempted to accept out of financial desperation
If an Insurer Fails to Investigate Your Claim, Reach Out to an Experienced Austin Personal Injury Attorney
Even if the insurer fails to investigate your claim in the first place, the law – rather than the insurance company – will ultimately determine the outcome of your personal injury claim. The distinguished Austin personal injury attorneys at The Patel Firm dedicate their practice to skillfully guiding claims like yours toward advantageous outcomes that support our clients’ rights – in pursuit of just compensation – and we are here for you too. We’re on your side and here to help in whatever way we can, so please don’t put off contacting or calling us at 361-400-2036 for more information today.
