Why Is The Adjuster Making Me A Low Ball Offer?

The reason is simple: because she can. After almost 25 years of representing Ohioans in auto, truck, and motorcycle accident injury claims, there is one thing I'm sure of: the relationship between you and the insurance company you're dealing with is an adversarial one. It is not a business model that's designed to be "fair" to you or transparent.

As proof of this, ask any adjuster any of these questions after they contact you: (1) Will you allow me to take a recorded statement of your insured, the person who smashed into me?  After all, they will require a recorded statement of you. (2) Will you divulge your insured's Social Security number? A standard request they will ask of you to snoop into your financial and credit history. (3) Will your insured sign an authorization allowing me to obtain his medical records both before and after the crash? You can bet they'll ask you to sign these authorizations, which give them a blank ticket to fish around in your medical history YEARS before the crash.

(4) What are your insured's liability limits? They'll ask all about your sources of insurance, such as your auto medical payments and health insurance coverage. (5) Will you pay my medical bills as they come due and reimburse me for mileage and gas for all of my doctors and therapy visits? 

As you'll soon learn, this is a one way street. You will jump through all kinds of hoops, signing all their papers, operating on faith that they'll "do the right thing...and frequently receive nothing in return from the insurance company. And be prepared to hear "company policy does not allow us to divulge that information." See how this works? How do I know this? It's one of the main reasons why people call me after getting nowhere with the insurance company.

This doesn't make the adjuster or the insurance company evil. It's just that their goal, their mission, their reason for existing, is to pay as little as possible. But it doesn't mean you have to accept it, unless you like the equivalent of slamming your head against a concrete wall.