Random Thoughts on Dealing with Insurance Adjusters

Many Plaintiffs Attorneys view adjusters with great suspicion. This is particularly true of Plaintiffs representatives who have never had occasion to work claims from the defense side. The reality is that adjusters are people too. They have families, they have to work and are often overworked and under paid. While they have a job to do, they can help you especially if they respect and like you. Likewise, if you talk down and don’t treat them like a real person, they are not going to be easily impressed by anything you have to tell them. The Plaintiff’s representative should find out everything they can about the adjuster, years of experience, kinds of cases they handle, etc. and most importantly, what their settlement authority is. If you find out that you are dealing with an adjuster who has $2,500.00 in settlement authority, you immediately know you are going to have to provide information that is going to cause that adjuster to go to his supervisor or manager in order to get the reserves on a particular case set higher. (In a past article I shared with the reader the significance of reserves). As long as an adjuster has a case reserved within his/her authority, he/she generally can act pretty much on their own. Consequently, it is important to understand levels of authority. Most companies today limit the first line adjusters authority to a certain level over which he/she must then go to others in the chain of command to get more authority. If you have a familiarity with these levels it can help to get your case settled when it is time to do so.

What should you do when you get a new claims handler on the file? You work with an adjuster, you’ve developed a rapport and all of a sudden there is a new claims handler on the file. Most Plaintiffs Attorneys view this as a negative. However, if you’ve done your homework (gotten the prior adjuster to set a high reserve) then the assigning of a new claims handler should be viewed as a golden opportunity. Many times when a new adjuster is assigned to a case they already are working on an overload of files and now have 30 or more new cases dumped in their lap that they have to deal with. Take the opportunity to call the new adjuster and tell them “I want to help you out, I want to lighten your load, why don’t we get this case settled, it is ready to settle.” The adjuster is going to tell you, “I’d like to do that” and start the negotiation process.. Odds are at this point the adjuster will not have read the file in much detail. The adjuster is going to read some brief information if he senses that he has an opportunity to get rid of the file and your demand is within the reserves. Many times the adjuster may just look at the reserve and try to get the case settled within the reserve not really knowing what the case is about except in general terms. This gives you a distinct advantage.

How many times have you heard an adjuster say to you after you’ve made an initial demand, “what do you really want to settle this case for… and what do you really feel the case is worth?” The Plaintiff Attorney thinking that he may be able to get their case settled quickly then proceeds to tell the adjuster, “well I think the case has a range of between (some lower number) and (some number higher than that but lower than the demand).” In reality, the adjuster is using an age old negotiating technique in getting the Plaintiff’s attorney to reduce his demand without making an offer. The Plaintiff’s attorney on the other hand, is thinking he can get the case settled between the two numbers he just gave to the adjuster. However what the Plaintiffs Attorney fails to realize is that adjusters are taught to have “selective hearing.” All they will ever hear in response to their question is the lowest number that is uttered by the Plaintiff’s representative’s lips. That is the number they are going to start negotiating from, not anything else that you’ve mentioned before. When responding to questions of this type, don’t fall into the trap of bidding against yourself. Instead respond to such question by saying, “well why don’t you make me an offer first that I can discuss with my client and then I will get back to you” and then attempt to use the adjuster’s technique in reverse. When the adjuster makes his initial offer, the Plaintiff’s representative can respond with something like, “there is no way I can justify that kind of offer to my client, you are going to have to do better than that. What more can you do for me?” With a little coaxing, you may be able to get the adjuster to make you another offer before you have to start reducing your demand.

Hopefully some of these tips will give the reader insight into dealing with the insurance adjuster.

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