There are far more uninsured drivers on Ohio’s roads than you know about! Scary right?! Despite Ohio law requiring drivers to carry insurance, it incredibly common, with some estimates as high as ONE IN EIGHT DRIVERS being uninsured.
To protect yourself, it is critically important to make sure you have uninsured/under-insured motorist coverage, also known as “UM.” If you have UM coverage and happen to be the unlucky winner of a chance encounter with an uninsured driver, at least your UM coverage will be provided with compensation for your injuries, right? With UM, you file the claim with your own insurance company as though you had filed a claim with the other driver’s insurance. And since you are filing a claim and dealing with your own insurance company, you don’t need to still hire an attorney, right? WRONG!
You absolutely should still protect yourself by hiring an attorney, because even though you are a paying customer, the insurance company and its adjusters DO NOT SERVE YOU. First and foremost, THEY SERVE THE INSURANCE COMPANY’S PROFITS.
Insurance is a business and the goal of any business is to make money. In order to make as much money as possible, insurance companies need to have tons of money coming in through insurance premiums, and very little money going out through claim settlements.
This is where the insurance adjuster comes in. An adjuster is the company representative that reaches out to you very soon after a car accident and handles the claim for the insurance company. Adjusters are the company’s first line of defense to keep money from going out! Their goal is getting accident victims to accept as little money as possible in exchange for letting them off the legal liability hook for damages their customer caused. Insurance companies reward their adjusters who settle claims for very low amounts. This is the case for every kind of adjuster, whether they are the bodily injury adjuster handling the claim of a third party, or whether they are the UM adjuster handling their own customer’s UM claim.
UM adjusters will act as though they care about your well-being after an accident, but they are probably just trying to butter you up to help their company keep more of its money, and NOT give it to you!! Although the UM adjuster plays your friend, he will almost certainly offer you a sum to settle your UM claim that is significantly less than what your case is worth.
And adjusters working on an UM claim have an additional trick up their sleeve – they use “customer satisfaction” to trick you into trusting them. UM adjusters’ prey on the common belief that above anything else, a business values its customers’ satisfaction. After all, how could a company attract more customers without other customers touting how great the company is? UM adjusters use this logic to convince you that you don’t need an attorney, because you are their customer, and companies always take good care of their own customers. THIS IS A LIE. They will tell you that they care about you and will be there for you, just like a good neighbor, or that you have no need to fear because as their customer, you’re in good hands. THESE ARE LIES. Don’t believe them.
The UM adjuster is NOT your friend. They have one job: SETTLE CLAIMS FOR AS LITTLE MONEY AS POSSIBLE!
That is where an injury attorney can help, because we also have one job: GET YOU THE COMPENSATION YOU DESERVE!