StateFarm wants to settle!
 

so after having received $3300 in damages to my 300D and not totaling it, they have called me and said that they want to settle the physical and lost work part of the claim. I missed 3 days of work and the medical bills were about $400. I went to the emergency room for a checkup after the accident, and have not had to pay the bills, they went directly to statefarm, but i bet they will still send those to me. anyway, i was not hurt seriously, i had a sore neck and did not enjoy the weekend after the accident, but was not hurt.

I am an Oil Field engineer for Schlumberger and i missed 3 days of bonus for a gas well i was not able to attend. i missed $1500 worth of bonus that Statefarm is reimbursing me for. This was on top of my salary, so i did not miss anything there.

so we are looking at $1,900 for the medical part and their offer was $2,800 to end the claim today. that means i get $900 for pain and suffering.

What i want to know is if that is enough or to be laughed at. I was thinking at least $2k for pain and suffering, as i was miserable for a good 4-5 days (not to mention not being able to work on my car!!!)

what do you all think, should i call them back and say it is not enough? what do i say to get them to raise it?

let me get this straight.....you got paid $3300 for a 1985 car and you get to keep it for parts or whatever, you got paid for your lost wages, they are paying the medical bills, you are not hurt anymore than say like falling off your bike, got a few days vacation from work, and you got a few extra bucks to boot?

So what exactly are you complaining about? There is a guy on the back cover of the phone book who would love to help you out...

IMO, taking that route precludes you from every complaining about the cost of insurance.

odie, i am not complaining.

i am young, just out of college and have never had to deal with insurance or an accident of any kind. i was stating all the facts about what happened, and am not looking to hire one of those guys from the back of the phonebook. i received over 10 letters from those guys within 3 days of my accident.

i agree that the insurance company is actually dealing OK with me. i was afraid i would be ripped off with the car, but so far it seems fine.

I am pretty sure that i will accept their offer, but was just wondering what others had experienced already. I have absolutely no idea if this is normal, standard, or out of wack.

Seems like a fair deal to me. I might try asking for another grand or two. If they balk at it, just mention that you want to run the offer by a lawyer. Odds are they will up it by $500 - $1000 because they know if you get a lawyer it will cost them much more.

well that was odd, i just called the back and told them i wanted 4k, and he said," Well i don't have a problem with that, that will work."

i wonder what he has a problem with? well that is settled then.

Done good!

I would say so, also.

Luckily State Farm is reasonable. Of course they have law firms on retainer, b ut when their policy holder is at fault clearly, it is not necessarily in their interest to go to jury trial just on the issue of damages for medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering.

Jurors get bored, disgusted, and disinterested in being forced to listen to that stuff all day long, it feel like lawyers arguing about money.

Which of course, it is. And jurors in that state of mind can do surprising things.

When they as insurers like them, are faced with claimants like you, they won't nickel and dime you over damages to a car, which likely was really totalled based on its market value

Their REAL energy gets spent on analyzing the attached medical case, because that is where the TRUE financial risk to them lies.

How do I know they do that? Long time ago I was one of they

Once you sign off and settle, it is hard to go back for another bite of the apple

I think you did well

Make sure you DONT sign any paperwork limiting liability for any future medical bills regarding this accident.

what do i do if they do send me the paperwork. can i tell them that i want to have the money and not sign it. not sure how i could get around that.?

That approach won't work.

If it did the Insurance companies would be faced the possibility of paying supplemental claims every time for the life of the policyholder or claimant.

The uncertainty would be utter chaos and the Insurance companies would proabaly be all out of business.

When they settle, they expect to be done with it forever the first time, and no going back for more bites of the apple

Not like going back into Court and asking for more alimony.

The legal settlement will have - or maybe the settlement check itself - language on it that says

"By accepting this settlement (or by cashing this check) this constitutes a full,knowing,complete and final settlement of any and all claims, now and in the future, arising from this incident"

Every settlement would have this. Possible future expenses are supposed to be taken into account when the final settlement figure is agreed upon.

Look over the paperwork when it comes. Very likely it will have some language similar to that mentioned in the post previous to this one.

State Farm is not trying to trick you. This is a relatively small claim and a simple one, for them and you. It does not seem you will suffer future pain in the future.

You can tell them you want the money and not sign the paperwork.

They will politely tell you in return you need not sign it. But you will not get any money until you do - it releases them from liability.

To put it bluntly: "No tickee, no laundary"

It can not be gotten around. The system is not without faults and unfairnesses, but this is how it operates.

The insurance companies should honor their obligation to pay claims fairly and promptly, (and many times they don't), but they should have the right not to be held hostage for endless supplemental claims either, is the thinking behind this set up.

If there is truly no future damage to your health contemplated by this incident, and you are being compensated fairly for lost and future wages lost, pain ans suffering, and the compensation for damage to your vehicle is reasonable, you could sign off, accept the payment, and move on.

I think they have a right to that, the insurance company and their policy holder, as the insrance company is not allowed to come back and say we paid you too high a settlement, we want some of it back.

Everyone is supposed to be treated fairly, it seems. Sometimes claimants are greedy and unreasonable, and sometimes insurers are too stingy, weasel out on abstruse technicalities, or are dishonest. The remedies of the Insurance Commissioner and Court trials and attornies are available for that.

From what you said, I think State Farm's settlement is reasonable overall.

But if you don't sign off on the whole thing and release them from liability you will never see one dime of the settlement. There is no question about that.

(Though in some cases - you could possibly split the settlement - ie, accept the settlement on the car and sign off on it and get the money for that - while you think on the injury part for awhile before signing off- that might be reasonable. It seems like you did, and you acted wisely and reasonally in so doing, in this case......

Though in a way the two claims are inter twined, as sometimes the Insurance may over pay the damages a bit on a damaged car to make the claimant happey, and then not pay so much on the bodily injury side of the claim.)

All I am saying is that injuries sustained in an accident might take a while to show up. Get yourself check out both by docs and chiros.

I have been a loyal state farmer all my life and they have covered me in 1 car accident, 1 car theft, 1 motorcycle theft, 2 motorcycle accidents. My wife was asking about why we are still with them. Even after all of my claims they are STILL the cheapest around.

A better question might be "Why are they still with you?"

You have a bit of leverage because of the "injury". They don't know if the injury is going to come back and bite them in the ass...........who knows if you've got ongoing back problems yet. If you settle for a fixed amount, you waive all rights to any claim to them for any future problems relating to this incident. They'd rather pay a bit more right now and be out from under any possible medical issue down the road.

Personally, with no ongoing injury, an offer of $4K is eminently fair. It's unlikely that an attorney can get any more money unless he does some creative work with regard to the "injuries". You're entitled to be made whole.........you're not entitled to take more from the insurance company than you need to be made whole.

The few additional dollars above your actual losses can be considered as payment for you accepting any future risk of ongoing injuries from the accident.