State Farm Car Accident Injury Claims and Settlements

If you have the misfortune of experiencing an auto collision at one of Prince George’s, Montgomery or Charles County, there is a high likelihood of facing State Farm as the opposing insurance company. The problem is, State Farm bodily injury settlements are notoriously hard to come by. This problem magnifies if you attempt to go against them on your own, making it distressing when you’ve got high medical bills and are looking at future care.

There are ways to get past State Farm’s initial reluctance to pay fair compensation for your injuries, but the best way to assure that is hiring a personal injury attorney. The legal team at Duboff & Associates, Chtd. handles many motor vehicle accident cases and quite a few of them involve State Farm. Here is what to know about this large insurance company and working with them towards the settlement of your automobile collision case.

A Formidable Opponent

State Farm is a large insurance company with plenty of resources for hiring strong legal representation. It currently ranks at 33 on the Fortune 500 list and employs 68,234 workers. Since it has a high market share, it is very likely that you will come across someone who holds one of their insurance policies.

Despite being one of the largest auto insurance companies, State Farm is going through challenging times right now which will lead to closing 11 insurance claims processing facilities and displacing employees. This restructuring causes severe disruption in the ranks and makes consistent communication difficult. Not only are you likely to be assigned an insurance adjuster who is worried about their future (and likely cranky about this) but this could be a frustrating drawn-out experience full of inefficiencies and less than fair treatment.

How Insurance Claims Are Treated in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

State Farm also has a reputation for low-ball offers on auto accident claims unless a case is especially grievous, like a DUI or clear reckless behavior. If you search around on the web, many attorneys discuss this experience with the company’s claims adjusters at length, and our firm is not spared. Any chance that you could share contributory negligence and it is possible that your claim for financial losses will fail, which can be disastrous if your medical care costs are high.

Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia are three of the few states in the nation to follow “contributory negligence” rules. Under this law, the only way you can recover compensation for a personal injury lawsuit is if you are totally blameless for the accident that caused your injuries.

Suppose you’ve been injured in a crash with another driver and you file a lawsuit. Suppose the jury determines that your losses from the crash-including medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages- amount to $150,000. The investigation, however, has determined that you are five percent at fault for the accident. According to the contributory negligence rule, if you are even one percent at fault, your compensation for personal damages will be zero, leaving you on the hook for thousands of dollars.

Major insurance companies like State Farm know this and can take full advantage by trying to downplay legitimate claims. The pain you live with on a daily basis and emotional distress don’t even factor into the equation, and fair treatment is unlikely.

How Long Does It Take to Settle a State Farm Claim?

There may be cases, such as those strictly involving property damage, where State Farm is willing to work with you. Claims involving damage to your car or other belongings are easy to negotiate and usually have a set amount of damages that must be paid.

You may have to wait a few weeks for a State Farm insurance adjuster to review your claim following an accident that usually involves injuries, such as a motorcycle or truck accident. You also may not get a reply for some time after they read your claim. There are many people who accept this as part of dealing with insurance agencies, but we strongly disagree. Our car accident lawyers will aggressively pursue the State Farm agent who handled your claim, ensuring that your case stays at the top of the list until it is resolved.

The amount of time it takes State Farm to send a check for a car accident claim depends on many factors. Ideally, a settlement would be reached within a few weeks, but given how determined State Farm is about retaining profits, that is a very optimistic timeframe. Our firm will try to reach a settlement as quickly as possible, even if that means suing State Farm.

Claims with medical bills less than $10,000 are the most vulnerable to resistance. Your whiplash injury may be life-limited and painful, but State Farm will not see it that way unless we force it- and we will. When your future well-being is at stake, an experienced car accident attorney at Duboff & Associates, Chtd. will not hesitate to hold the at-fault driver and/or the insurer accountable.

Settlement Payouts

When it comes to accident claims, State Farm is difficult but not impossible to handle. If you have wage loss, property damage, domestic help expenses, or other objective expenses, they tend to acknowledge and consider those circumstances. However, high medical bills, while they are also objective, are not a guarantee of a fair settlement, which is hard when you’re facing months and even years of physical therapy and other restorative treatments.

You May Have to File a Lawsuit

You will likely have to sue to receive your fair share for your medical costs, especially if you only suffered soft tissue injuries like whiplash. This does not necessarily mean the case goes to court. It is just that State Farm takes claims more seriously once they face a lawsuit and their outside counsel often see the sense in settling the matter rather than taking it to trial. However, once a case must go this far, we take a larger share of the settlement for our attorney fees.

Even then, you still have to keep a careful eye on State Farm. It has a history of ignoring medical liens and failing to follow through on the claims process in other ways. When accident victims decide to fight State Farm on their own, the settlement is not the end of the ordeal. You need to monitor them to be sure you will not be stuck with any other medical treatment bills and related expenses like legal costs.

With all the possibilities with State Farm, and many of them not being pleasant, it is apparent that you will need help with your claim for compensation. That’s when you need to contact a car accident lawyer at a personal injury law firm for legal advice and representation.

Call an Accident Attorney

When the opposing automobile insurance company is State Farm, accident victims are likely in for a difficult experience. You need to show that you take your claim seriously and one way to do that is to hire a legal team to handle your personal injury claim.

The car accident lawyers at DuBoff & Associates, Chtd. offers substantial experience securing State Farm settlements for people injured by their policyholders in automobile accidents. While we work with them and their resistance to settle for a reasonable amount, you can focus on recovery. Since medical treatment is expensive and unhealed injuries can substantially limit the quality of your life, that should take priority over arguing with insurance carriers like State Farm. Leave that to us!

Contact our law firm today to schedule a consultation with a car accident lawyer on your State Farm case. We will review your auto insurance policy and take over the entire process of negotiation and, if necessary, litigation, so you can focus on healing.