Do I have to accept a final offer from the insurance company after a Virginia car accident?

Answer:

No. In fact, “final offers” are rarely ever “final.” However, if you are an unrepresented non-lawyer, you might not be in the best negotiating position. The insurance company knows that you have limited knowledge of the law and of the procedures of filing a lawsuit. They also might suspect that you are too busy to spend time in the courthouse pursuing your case. For that reason, “final offers” made to unrepresented car accident victims sometimes are final. And they’re often accompanied by remarks like:

• “This case is too small for a lawyer to take”
• “A lawyer is only going to take a third of what we’re offering – we’re not going to increase the value just because you hired a lawyer”

Don’t be intimidated by an insurance adjuster. If you call our office and your case is too small or we don’t think that we’d add enough value to your case that it would make sense to hire us, we’ll tell you. That’s only fair.

Other things that you might want to consider in deciding to negotiate your Virginia auto accident case on your own are:

• Am I going to owe money to my health insurance company when this case is over?
• Do I have to repay my auto insurance company if they paid some of my medical bills?
• What should I be doing with the bill collector phone calls before my case settles?

If you run into the adjuster who will not budge from what you consider a lowball settlement offer, give us a call to discuss your case at 703-385-1100.