Will that accident affect your insurance rate?

April 22, 2010By Justin Petty No Comments

So one of the most common questions I get is related to how an accident will affect insurance premiums.

If you are worried about this, then you are correct in doing so.  The answer as to how much your rate will increase is specific to the insurance company that provides your coverage.  For example, if you watch TV you’ll see advertisements from more than one insurance company that now offer “accident forgiveness”, or something of the sort.  In my opinion, this is a great marketing technique, but I would want to know how much it would have cost me to have an accident before “accident forgiveness” and then whether there is a charge to get “accident forgiveness” on your policy.  Without having those answers, how can one determine if the offer is a deal or a dud?

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Difficult Adjusters and Lawsuits

November 24, 2009By Justin Petty No Comments

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As a former liability adjuster, I cannot count the times that an individual threatened a lawsuit in an attempt to get more money.

I would like to make the point that adjusters are calloused to the threat of a lawsuit.  Many times, the adjuster’s ignorance is the reason they do not respond.  It is rare for an adjuster to actually be involved in the negotiation of an actual suit, so they never get real experience and hardly ever actually hear or see what the staff attorney or hired attorney does to get the suit settled.  Threatening a suit is rarely useful unless the threat is clearly credible.

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