When you are dealing with insurance, one of the best tools to have at your disposal is an insurance lawyer. After all, if you are involved in a dispute with an insurance agency over something such as being declined an insurance payment for an injury you sustained, they are going to have specialists looking over it to make their argument more solid as well. The truth is that insurance companies are a business before they are anything else. If they can find a way to justify denying you a payment that you are owed, they will give it a try. The worst thing is that one cannot easily show that an insurance company was acting in bad faith when they denied your claim, but the best way to find that out is to work with an attorney who focuses their practice on bad faith insurance claims. But why exactly does an insurance lawyer do so much for you in this situation? To help you find the right insurance lawyer to help you through all of this, we have compiled some examples of qualities one should look for when evaluating potential insurance lawyers.
When is the Best Time to Look into an Insurance lawyer?
Figuring out when to get an insurance lawyer is its own can of worms. Before you do anything to do with getting an insurance lawyer, you should make sure that this incident cannot be resolved without getting one. No matter how good a job an insurance lawyer can do for your case, if it is something that you can do with relative ease, it will be a lot less frustrating and expensive for you in the long run. For example, if an insurance adjuster seems to be doing a poor job on your claim, and ultimately gives you too low a payout (or not payout at all), you can simply escalate and ask to have a different adjuster handle your case instead. Granted, this will not always work, especially if the insurance agency is being uncooperative, but if you do find an adjuster that is more agreeable to your situation, it will be nice to be able to just close the book on this whole incident.
Of course, an insurance lawyer is not only valuable when you are being impeded by your insurance agency. Some insurance cases can be a complex nightmare, and as such, you may not be able to handle this situation on your own. By having a quality lawyer on your side with experience in handling insurance claims like these, they can help guide you through and get you a satisfactory outcome. It may also be worthwhile to consult a lawyer about your insurance claim before you proceed to speak with your insurance agency if you believe that there may be difficulties if you go at them on your lonesome.
The Best Things to Look for When Evaluating Insurance Lawyers
However, not everyone is going to be so lucky that they can turn around a sour claim on their own. If you are unable to get things handled on your own, the next step is to get a hold of an insurance lawyer, who can put some pressure on them. There are a lot of things to look out for in an insurance lawyer, and the truth is, a lot of these are pretty universal and common-sense ideas. When receiving goods or services from anyone, it is fair to expect a decent balance of affordability, experience, and quality. Granted, if you are looking for more affordability, you can expect to see less experienced and/or quality, which may be detrimental to the outcome of your insurance case. On the other hand, going for quality and/or experience is going to mean that it will be more expensive. And while this may be worthwhile if you want a guaranteed win, there is such a thing as diminishing returns when putting money into goods or services. You should be mindful of how much you actually stand to receive from pursuing the insurance claim; if you wind up putting too much money into the pursuit of your claim, you may find that winning the claim does not ultimately get you very much due to lawyer costs. A good balance and context are key.
Trust is another universal thing that people seek out when working with anyone is trust. Yes, yes, we know of the age-old adage of lawyers being untrustworthy. While you are going to find lawyers who fit this stereotype, you will find the stereotype applies to most professions. The best thing for you to do when you want to find trustworthy lawyers is to look at the impressions of previous clients. If a lawyer gets good reviews, especially if they are consistently regarded as honest, this helps a lot with narrowing down the playing field. In the grand scheme of things, a person who does quality research into finding an insurance lawyer is going to have a pretty low risk of running into an insurance lawyer that is not going to work diligently for your insurance case.
Efficiency makes a big deal for any good attorney as well, insurance or otherwise. Any attorney that seems to be dragging their heels is simply not worth your time. Instead, a good attorney is collecting evidence and preparing a statement to send the insurance agency on their intent to escalate things if the low or nonexistent insurance payout is not rectified to their client’s satisfaction. And that is the big key to efficiency — just like you, an insurance lawyer wants to get this case resolved as quickly as possible with few to no concessions. Even if all an insurance lawyer does is send a strongly worded letter to your insurance agency, that may be the lynchpin that gets the case settled for you. Unless an insurance agency believes that they have a case to deny your claim or offer less than you think you are owed, they are not likely to push back against you in this case.
Picking a Lawyer That Fits Well with You
When all is said and done, however, no matter how trustworthy, good, affordable, or experienced an insurance lawyer maybe, one of the biggest factors that you have to look out for in one is how well you get along with them. This cannot be gleaned from reading reviews; instead, you have to get a consultation with an attorney to figure that out. The truth is, you are not going to be able to get along with every person, and lawyers are no exception to this rule. For example, if an attorney is perhaps too brusque for you, or maybe if they are too lackadaisical about things, that may be a major turnoff for you that reduces your ability to work well with them. So do not settle with a lawyer just because they seem good and keep your options option. Of course, if the first consultation is an insurance lawyer’s dream come true, do not squander it, as that can make this whole situation a lot less frustrating.
