Expert: Bennie719 - 7/23/2009

Question
In the soft tissue injury case, should the claimant make a demand first or wait for the at fault driver’s insurance offer first? Can you explain which way is better for the claimant? Thanks for your answer.


Answer
Hi Ack,
You as the claimant should always make the demand because if you
wait for an offer, it's going to be so low that you may not never
be able to negotiate an amount to your satisfaction.
Pick an amount that will make you happy and increase that amount by 40-50% and then make your demand for that amount.  The adjustor will
still make a low counter offer to your demand, but probably not as low as it would be if you waited for an offer before making a demand.  This leaves you plenty of room to negotiate downward while the adjustor negotiates upward until an amount is reached that makes you happy or until you realize that the adjustor has hit his maximum offer.

You state that your injuries were soft tissue only.  If you treated
solely with a Chiropractor, then keep in mind that the insurance
company will put a much lower value on your claim as opposed to it's value if you treated with a medical doctor and prescribed physical therapy.

I hope that you find this helpful.  Your feed back by rating my
response will be appreciated.

Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area