After a truck crash, you may receive a settlement offer from the at-fault party’s insurance company. While it may be tempting to accept the first insurance offer after a truck accident—especially when you’re physically, emotionally, and financially overwhelmed—doing so can be a costly mistake.
Insurance companies are for-profit businesses whose primary goal is to minimize payouts, not to compensate you fairly. You should get truck accident insurance settlement advice from Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs, an experienced and trusted law firm that can protect your right to maximum compensation.
Why Insurance Companies Offer Low Initial Settlements
Insurance adjusters use various tactics to reduce the value of your claim, especially when they know you aren’t represented by a personal injury lawyer.
Quick Settlement to Limit Their Liability
The insurance company may contact you within days of the accident, offering a fast settlement. They do this before you fully understand the extent of your injuries or the long-term financial impact of the accident. Once you accept an offer, you waive your right to seek additional compensation—even if your medical condition worsens.
Taking Advantage of Financial Hardships
Truck accident victims typically face financial strain due to medical expenses and lost income. Insurers take advantage of this desperation, assuming victims will quickly accept the insurance company’s offer, even if it’s an unfairly low payout, instead of fighting for the amount they’re truly owed.
Undervaluing Medical Costs and Future Expenses
The first offer typically fails to account for future medical treatments, rehabilitation, and ongoing care. If you have suffered serious injuries, such as spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, or multiple fractures, you may require long-term therapy, surgeries, or lifelong care—all of which should be included in your compensation.
Downplaying Non-Economic Damages
Pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of quality of life are legitimate damages in truck accident claims. However, insurers may exclude or undervalue these losses in their first offer. This is possible because it’s hard for the victims to calculate these non-economic damages without assistance from a knowledgeable truck accident lawyer.
Why Accepting the First Offer Can Hurt Your Case
You May Be Entitled to More Compensation
Truck accidents may result in catastrophic injuries that require extensive medical care, ongoing rehabilitation, and sometimes permanent disability accommodations. If you accept the initial settlement, you may later realize you were entitled to far larger compensation for your injuries and losses.
The Full Extent of Your Injuries May Not Be Clear Yet
It can take weeks or months for doctors to determine the full impact of your injuries. If you accept an insurance company’s offer too soon (before maximum medical improvement is reached), you may be left paying out of pocket for future treatments that should have been covered under your settlement.
You Lose Your Right to Sue for Additional Damages
Once you sign a settlement agreement, you waive your right to pursue further compensation. Even if new medical complications arise later or you experience future income loss or prolonged pain and suffering, you will no longer get compensated.
Common Arguments the Insurance Company Will Use to Deny Liability
- Failure to Show Proximate Cause: The insurer may argue that the truck driver’s negligence wasn’t the direct cause of your injuries, attempting to break the causal link between the accident and your damages.
- Act of God: If extreme weather, earthquakes, or other uncontrollable natural events played a role in the crash, the defense may claim that no party is liable.
- Pre-Existing Injuries: The insurer may assert that your injuries weren’t caused by the truck accident but instead stemmed from a prior medical condition.
- Unavoidable Collision: The offer from the insurance company may not come at all if they claim the crash was inevitable, which means no negligence of the truck driver was involved.
- Comparative Fault of the Plaintiff: If you share any blame for the accident, they’ll argue to reduce your compensation under Wisconsin’s comparative negligence laws.
Why Avoid Direct Negotiations with the Insurance Company and How Our Truck Accident Attorneys Can Help
Being involved in a truck accident is overwhelming, and dealing with the insurance company on your own can put you at a serious disadvantage. While the insurer may seem cooperative, chances are that the insurance company’s settlement offer at first may be severely inadequate.
At Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs, our seasoned personal injury attorneys know the strategies insurers may use to undermine claims. We will fight aggressively to recover the maximum compensation you’re owed.
Unequal Power Dynamic: Leveling the Playing Field
Insurance companies have vast legal and financial resources at their disposal. Their teams of lawyers, adjusters, and investigators are trained to limit liability and pressure victims into lowball settlements. If you attempt to negotiate alone, you’re up against a corporate giant that handles thousands of claims annually and knows how to exploit every legal loophole to devalue your case.
Our highly skilled attorneys at Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs level the playing field by bringing decades of trial experience, deep legal knowledge, and a winning track record to the table. We use strategic litigation tactics to make it clear to the insurance company that we won’t settle for less than what you rightfully deserve.
Limited Knowledge of Your Rights: We Have Deep Legal Skills
Without legal knowledge, you may not be aware of all the damages you’re entitled to claim. Insurance adjusters take advantage of this by downplaying the long-term impact of your injuries and pressuring you to accept a quick settlement before you fully understand the extent of your losses.
At Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs, we ensure that your compensation accounts for all damages, including:
- Medical expenses (past, present, and future)
- Lost wages and reduced earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Long-term disability or disfigurement
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Our legal team thoroughly investigates your case, consulting with medical professionals, accident reconstruction experts, and economic analysts to ensure that every dollar of your damages is accounted for.
Risk of Settling for Inadequate Compensation: We Leverage Our Trial Capabilities to Negotiate
Insurance companies use delay tactics, misleading statements, and high-pressure negotiations to convince accident victims to accept low settlements. Once you sign a settlement agreement, you forfeit your right to pursue additional compensation—even if you later discover that your injuries are more severe than initially diagnosed.
Our experienced trial attorneys at Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs never back down in the face of insurance company resistance. With a proven record of winning large verdicts, we use our readiness to go to trial as a strategic advantage in negotiations.
Insurers know that facing a well-prepared opponent before a jury could lead to a much higher payout than a fair settlement—and we leverage this reality to pursue compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Complex Legal Procedures: We Move Fast to Collect Evidence
Truck accident cases involve intricate legal and procedural challenges that most victims aren’t equipped to handle alone. From filing deadlines to gathering evidence and dealing with insurance adjusters, one misstep could weaken your claim.
At Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs, we move swiftly to collect and preserve critical evidence before it can be lost or destroyed. This includes:
- Black box (electronic logging device) data to uncover violations of federal trucking regulations
- Truck maintenance and inspection records to expose mechanical failures
- Driver logs to verify if hours-of-service (HOS) regulations were violated
- Cargo loading records to determine if improper loading contributed to the accident
- Surveillance footage and witness statements to reconstruct how the crash occurred
By diligently fulfilling all legal requirements related to your personal injury lawsuit and obtaining compelling evidence, we strengthen your truck or car accident claim for fair compensation.
Emotional Stress and Time-Consuming Process: We Support You with Personalized Representation
Handling a truck accident claim while recovering from serious injuries is physically, emotionally, and financially exhausting. The insurance company knows this and may intentionally prolong the process, hoping you will become desperate enough to accept their low initial settlement offer.
At Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs, we take the burden off your shoulders. Our dedicated attorneys handle all communications, paperwork, and negotiations, allowing you to focus on your recovery. We provide personalized attention, keeping you informed at every stage and ensuring that your voice is heard throughout the legal process.
Get Legal Help from Our Experienced Truck Accident Lawyers
Don’t risk undervaluing your claim by negotiating with the insurance company alone. At Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs, we fight relentlessly to hold negligent trucking companies and their insurers accountable.
With our aggressive negotiation strategies, extensive trial experience, and strong determination, we pursue fair and just compensation for our clients. To schedule your free consultation, call us at 855-954-1186 or contact us online.
