If you were hurt by a negligent Missouri truck driver, you may face a long road to recovery—not just from your physical injuries, but also because of the enormous financial cost of medical treatment, physical rehabilitation, and life-time care. While you should expect that the truck driver or their insurance company will pay your bills, you may find them reluctant to have a conversation with you or offer a fair and equitable settlement.
Being ignored by an insurance company can be incredibly frustrating—so frustrating, in fact, that you may be inclined to give up and accept less compensation than you deserve. Having legal representation is the best chance you have to obtain compensation, especially when the insurance company isn’t playing fair.
Why Insurers Sometimes Ignore Truck Crash Victims
When you get hurt in a truck accident that was not your fault, you may expect the truck company’s insurance to pay for your injuries. After all, motorists are required to hold policies to protect the health and well-being of anyone they may injure.
However, insurance agencies are for-profit businesses. While they may be obligated to pay your medical bills if their client makes a mistake, their end-goal is to give you as little money as possible.
Even if they’re responsible for the crash and your medical costs, trucking companies and their insurance carriers sometimes decide they don’t want to pay for accident costs and try to make the process difficult by:
- Refusing to take your phone calls
- Ignoring your emails
- Rejecting negotiations
Often, when the insurance company doesn’t play ball, they’re making a calculated decision: they know they’re liable to compensate you for your medical bills and lost income, but they also know you’re losing money by taking time off work. It isn’t ethical, but sometimes insurance agents and adjusters intentionally stonewall accident victims, hoping that their deteriorating financial circumstances will make them more likely to accept a bad settlement.
In fact, the insurance company might try and hold out so long that you pass Missouri’s statute of limitations, making it impossible to obtain compensation at all.
Insurers Do More Than Ignore
Insurers often stonewall accident victims, but they have other strategies designed to save themselves money—even when it means depriving you of a fair recovery. Insurance companies sometimes:
- Offer a quick settlement, which may account for your immediate medical expenses but doesn’t factor in your lost income, physical rehabilitation, and future medical needs.
- Delay the claims process, asking you to submit and re-submit documents or provide never-ending evidence of your injury.
- Ask for a recorded statement, where you recount the circumstances of your accident and the nature of your injuries with an insurance adjuster. While this may seem like a good way to tell your side of the story, the insurance company is really just trying to find ways to use your own words against you.
The tricks and tactics of the insurance company are meant to pressure you into accepting a fast but unfair settlement, even if it means driving you and your family into financial ruin.
How an Attorney Can Help
Insurance companies can stonewall you, drag out the claims process, or twist your words against you. However, there is one thing most trucking companies and insurance agencies are afraid of: an accident victim with experienced legal counsel.
When you hire a Missouri truck accident attorney, you’re not just hiring someone who knows the state’s trucking and insurance laws inside and out—you’re hiring a seasoned professional who will advocate your case on your behalf, helping you get the justice you need and the recovery you deserve.
If an insurer isn’t willing to negotiate in good faith, we can and will take them to court.
All the while, we won’t expect you to pay anything out of your own pocket. In fact, we only get paid if and when you do.
Have You Been Injured In A Missouri Commercial Truck Accident?
If you’ve been injured in a Missouri truck accident you should speak with an experienced truck accident lawyer as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact us online or call our office directly at 314.470.4928 to schedule a free consultation. We help pedestrian accident victims throughout the state of Missouri including Columbia, Springfield, Kansas City, St. Louis, Kirksville and Cape Girardeau.
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