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Once you have filed a personal injury claim, you can expect to get pulled into a negotiating process. The negotiations will focus on offers made by your injury lawyer in Ottawa and that of the opposing party. Below you will find the typical timeline for such negotiations.
Following the process step by step
You get a reservation of rights letter from the insurance company. The insurer promises to investigate your claim. This same letter also highlights the fact that the promise of an investigation does not serve as an admission of liability. You sent a demand letter to the insurance company for the party-at-fault. In that letter, you should itemize your damages. It helps to consult with a lawyer, before listing any figure for pain and suffering.
An adjuster responds to your demand letter and offers a settlement, which takes the form of a monetary figure. You reject the adjuster’s initial offer. You make a counter-offer. Your counter-offer should be slightly lower than the figure suggested by the adjuster. You wait until you get yet another offer. If you become impatient and get tired of waiting, you could jeopardize your ability to achieve a nod from your insurance, recognition of the veracity of your claim. This is one time when it really helps to have a lawyer. He or she can undertake those actions that could clear-up the confusion created by the delay in sending a new offer.
After all of that waiting, there is no guarantee that you will like the second offer. You have every right to refuse that second offer and to make a slightly lower counter-offer. After sending that second counter-offer, you need to sweat through another waiting period.
Just as there is no guarantee that you will like any offer made by the insurer, there is no way to know how many offers must be presented, before both sides agree on one of them. Hence, it becomes impossible to predict the length for any negotiating process. There are things that can contribute to a shortening of that process.
For example, the insurance company might become convinced that the accident victim has suffered some terrible injuries. In that case, it might fear the amount of money that a jury in a courtroom would award the person with the personal injury claim. When an insurance company has such fears, it settles rather quickly, because it does not want the case to go to trial.
Ideally, you and the insurance company will eventually reach an agreement. That means that the two of you will have agreed on a settlement figure. The amount paid to your injury lawyer will be a stated percentage of that same settlement figure.