As I predicted, the new tort law changes passed in Georgia last year have led to even worse lowballing pre-suit.
Adjusters are looking at already reasonable bills for serious injuries, cutting them to whatever health insurance paid, and then extending incredibly low offers.
Here's a recent example: Bad wreck with serious foot injury in a young client requiring a major surgery with open reduction internal fixation. The kind of injury that can reasonably result in a seven-figure verdict.
We demand the policy limits of $500K.
The pre-suit offer? $140K.
The medical bills we have are around $115K. Certainly, pain and suffering is worth more than $25K for a debilitating foot injury, right?
I suspect the adjuster, and whatever program they are using, just cut the bills down to whatever health insurance paid, and then used that as the baseline for the offer. Even so, for a serious foot injury, the general damages are far more than what this offer reflects.
Is it frustrating when the insurance company is acting so unreasonably? Yes. But these lowball offers can ultimately benefit our clients in the long run.
More and more cases will be mis-evaluated pre-suit because of the reliance on medical bills and the reductions carriers are applying to them. This, in turn, will lead to more excess settlements above policy limits because of poor pre-suit claims-handling processes.
Do you agree? Share your thoughts and join the conversation with me on LinkedIn.
