Q: I got injured but I feel like my insurance company low balled me. What are my rights?
A:
I'm not certain what type of context you were injured in? Is this involving a personal injury? If you are pursuing a claim with your insurance company, I am going to assume that you may have been injured by an uninsured motorist?
While frustrating, the insurance claims handling process is somewhat adversarial -- if it is someone else's insurance company or yours. Thankfully, just because an insurance company has made an offer on a case does not mean that you are obligated to accept their offer.
If the case involved another person's insurance company, you can file a lawsuit to recover what you deem to be a fair value for your injuries. These cases are usually determined by a judge or jury.
If the case is an uninsured motorist claim, the cases are resolved differently as they are usually resolved before an arbitrator or panel of arbitrators. The method for resolving the case will be set by your insurance policy.
Certainly, if you believe your case has more value that what is being offered by an insurance company, then you should speak to a lawyer who has experience with accident-injury cases.
Good luck to you.
A: If you signed a release, you have waived any further claim. If you haven't sign off on the offer and accepted and negotiated the settlement draft, you can simply reject the offer. Assuming you're handling this on your own, I would be sure that you have collected all of your medical records, bill and your wage loss verification. If you already presented all of that and are still dissatisfied with the offer to resolve this, then I think that you should contact a lawyer who handles personal injury cases and proceed accordingly.
A: Contact a member of the Illinois Assn for Justice--they give free consultations.
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