How to Deal With Insurance Adjusters After an Injury
April 26, 2025
One of the worst things that can ever happen to you is suffering a serious injury. As if the physical pain wasn’t bad enough, you are likely to suffer financial pain from high medical costs and lost wages. The only slight redemption is that you might be eligible to get financial compensation for your injuries through an insurance company. Unfortunately, even this can result in greater pain when insurance adjusters are uncooperative or actively hostile. How do you deal with insurance adjusters? Injury claim attorneys at Wapner Newman can potentially help you get fair compensation after a serious injury in Philadelphia by following these steps.
Step 1: Negotiating Insurance Claim — Personal Injury Lawyers vs. Insurance Adjusters
Have you ever dealt with a birth injury or nursing home abuse before your personal injury? For many people, the answer is probably no. Conversely, insurance adjusters handle these types of claims nearly every day of their lives. The experience difference is monumental. If you try to negotiate your insurance claim on your own, you may be at a significant disadvantage. The attorneys at Wapner Newman have decades of experience navigating insurance claims and negotiating with insurance adjusters for all types of personal injuries. Thus, the first thing you should do after an injury is to contact our law firm as soon as possible.
Step 2: Patience Leads to Larger Settlements
Typically, the more time that passes after an accident, the better it is for the insurance company. The insurance company knows that by stalling, you might become desperate enough to agree to a bad settlement or might even drop your claim out of frustration. Additionally, if it can stall for more than two years, the statute of limitations will run out, barring you from bringing a lawsuit against the insurance company.
However, this doesn’t mean you should pursue compensation recklessly. Settlement negotiations can only meaningfully start after we have gathered significant evidence. We need to be able to prove what caused your injury, who is liable for it, and how much of a financial impact that injury had on your life. Without that evidence, the insurance company will never agree to a fair settlement. Getting enough evidence to move forward takes time, and if you don’t wait for the right time, any compensation you get will not be enough for you to fully recover from your injuries.
Were you seriously injured due to the actions of another party in Philadelphia? If so, you may find yourself dealing with insurance adjusters. Don’t do this alone. Contact Wapner Newman at (215) 569-0900 today to schedule a free consultation.
Step 3: Never Talk to the Insurance Adjuster Independently
There is a reason that the first step of this process is getting legal representation. Your lawyer understands the best ways to communicate with insurance adjusters and how to protect your rights while doing so. The insurance adjuster would prefer, however, to deal with you rather than your lawyer. If an insurance adjuster tries to contact you without going through your attorney, end contact immediately and call our law firm right away. They should know better than to go around your legal counsel, and we will deal with this breach of protocol. Similarly, never directly contact an insurance adjuster without our lawyers being present during the communication.
It’s important to remember that you hired your lawyer for a good reason. Never try to negotiate your personal injury insurance claim without them.
Step 4: Be Prepared to Argue Fault
Insurance companies have a reasonably simple business plan. They make money by charging their customers premiums. The insurance companies then spend money on normal business expenses. Those costs are relatively static. One cost, though, is highly variable. Every time an insurance company has to pay compensation due to a claim, its profits decrease.
Since insurance adjusters work for insurance companies, they have a financial incentive to determine that you are at fault for your injury. This is frightening because of the comparative negligence laws in Pennsylvania. If you are determined to be more than 50% at fault for your injuries, the insurance company of another party will deny your claim. Even if it can’t prove your fault reaches that threshold, the company might reduce any settlement offers by the percentage it considers you to be at fault.
This is why we spend significant time gathering evidence before negotiating insurance claims. However, evidence isn’t always enough to get an insurance adjuster to settle. You may need to be willing to take legal action against the insurance company to get a fair result. Just filing a lawsuit is often a strong enough threat that an insurance adjuster will negotiate in good faith.
Contact Wapner Newman Today
If you have filed an insurance claim for an injury, never trust the insurance company to be on your side. Let an experienced personal injury lawyer at Wapner Newman represent you and deal with insurance adjusters throughout the claim process.
If you have been injured in an incident that was not your fault, talk to a lawyer as soon as possible. Contact our law firm immediately at (215) 569-0900 to protect your rights.