How long does an insurance company have to respond to a settlement demand?
Posted by MarkJan 15
My attorney sent a "settlement demand" to an insurance company of the driver who caused an accident I was injured in. I am wondering how long that insurance company has to either accept or deny that demand. Anyone know?
The Insurance Company always has the upper hand whether it be medical or car.
Considering that the other insurance company is dealing with an attorney at law I would think they would respond rather quickly. You never know. They could dispute. What is really important is what the other driver was insured for and whether the other driver has a cap on what the payout is. Some do, and the payout will never go higher than the cap. The only way you can get money above and beyond that is if you sure the person involved not the insurance agency.
I was involved in a wreck, the gut would have hit me head on if I had not tried to get out of his way. He t-boned me on a double line. All his insurance would pay out was his cap and it was only twenty-five thousand. Sounds like a lot but it isn’t when you consider the hospital bills (which we had to pay some of them back) the pain and suffering, lose of job time and replacement of vehicle. This guy at least had insurance, other than that he had nothing of value. Our insurance also paid us 25,000.00. Check with you insurance. People usually do not consider that when involved in an accident.
Good luck!
A settlement demand is nothing more than a letter from the attorney asking for some amount of money. It depends on the insurance company but the one I worked for would ignore any settlement demands. If an injured party decided to hire a lawyer it was going to court and that was it. My personal opinion was that by hiring a lawyer you made a mistake. You should have settled yourself. I expect that you saw this a a big payday and would not accept their offer so you hired a lawyer. Now you are at the mercy of the lawyers on both sides. What will eventually happen is that a settlement will be reached and your lawyer will get his 40% and you will end up with less than the insurance company offered you in the first place. If this ever happens again don’t go chasing a big payday and work it out yourself.
It varias from company to company. Some states have laws that state the maximum time period given to insurance companies to respond to a settlement.
ask the insurance company
spc_rice is a LIAR and worked for insurance companies. At any given insurance company in the United States only 2% of cases ever go to court. So that guy is a huge liar. If an insurance company went to court every time a lawyer was hired, they would go bankrupt from litigation.
These cases go to court when lawyer and their clients refuse to settle with insurance companies.
Here’s a tip: In MOST court cases, insurance companies end up paying several time more than if they had just settled. It is in your best interest to go into litigation. Jurors are people and people can’t stand insurance companies.