Should I Accept the Insurance Company’s Offer?

If your car accident was caused by another person you may receive a call from their insurance company soon after the accident, offering you money as a settlement.

A settlement offer can seem generous at first, because the future costs of an injury are not always obvious.

Loss of Income

For example, if you can’t work because of your injury, you should know how much money that represents over the rest of your working career. You will still have your usual bills to pay so you need to be sure you will have enough money to do so. If you’re 40 years old and were planning on working until age 65, that’s 25 years of lost income, which can already be a big number.

New Expenses

In addition to those everyday expenses, you may also have to spend additional money on things like medical expenses. Medical costs can add up to tens of thousands of dollars a year – maybe for the rest of your life, depending on your injuries. If you can’t do your usual household tasks, like mowing the lawn for example, you will have to pay someone to do that too.

Expert Advice

All those factors mean that an injury can quickly become more expensive than you would think. That’s why we often hire independent experts to calculate how much compensation our clients will need after their accident – for example a vocational expert to assess which jobs might be suited for you after your injury, or an economist to add up costs and expenses and adjust the amount for future inflation.

What to do about the Offer

If you do accept an offer from the insurance company, your file will be closed – you can’t go back for more money if you realize later that the offer was too low. That means you need to be sure the settlement offers full compensation before accepting it.

If you have any questions about your settlement offer, contact us for a free case review.