Insurance companies do not tell adjusters how to respond to each demand letter that gets sent to them by a claimant. Still, adjusters do follow some unwritten rules.
Acceptable actions when a response has not come as rapidly as expected
The claimant could call the insurance company and ask whether or not the demand letter had been received. At the time of such a call, the caller should ask to speak with either someone in the claims division or with a claim’s representative. Smart claimants check on the statute of limitations in their state. By delaying the response, the adjuster could force the claimant to abandon any plans, with respect to possible legal actions.
What action should be taken if the deadline in the statute of limitations is approaching, and no letter means an end to negotiations?
Claimants that find themselves in that sort of situation need to give serious thought to hiring a lawyer. With a lawyer’s help, a claimant could initiate a lawsuit and sue an insurance company. That would not force the claimant’s commitment to pursuit of the filed lawsuit. In other words, a claimant’s decision to file a lawsuit does not have to mean that the filer/claimant plans to meet the insurance company in a courtroom. In fact, those 2 parties might never get involved in a court case, one that studies the parties’ dispute.
Why, then, should a plaintiff pay a lawyer to complete the filing process, so that pursuit of a lawsuit could be possible? The reasons for that recommended action concern the lawsuit’s silent message. It lets the insurance company know the serious nature of the claimant’s annoyance, with respect to the insurance company’s actions.
Another benefit that comes with hiring a lawyer
Personal injury lawyers in Mountain View understand how to examine every angle of a case. An attorney’s examination might reveal some weakness in the insurer’s case, or some special potential strength in the claimant’s case. For instance, an attorney might find that the driver has assumed that no passenger got injured during the collision.
That might not be a wise assumption. Maybe some passenger has begun to display some telltale symptoms. If that is the case, then the appearance of those symptoms could be brought to the insurer’s attention. Indeed, the appearance of those symptoms could make the claimant’s case a good deal stronger. At the same time, it could emphasize the unfair nature of the adjuster’s failure to respond to the demand letter.
Consequently, the insurance company could find it difficult to win the lawsuit or any case that might follow the holding of a suit-initiated court session. In other words, the claimant might welcome the chance to sue the uncooperative insurance company.