I talked with a mediator last week about car accident lawsuits/settlements in general. This won’t come as a surprise to most car accident attorneys, but he confirmed what we’ve been experiencing for a while. In general, they are not offering a reasonable settlement (if they ever offer a settlement) until shortly before a trial date.

So, basically:

1. No reasonable offers are made before a claimant hires an attorney
2. Claimant is then forced to hire an attorney to try to get some type of fair compensation (most people hate lawsuits and don’t want to get involved with one)
3. The insurance company continues “low ball” settlement offers
4. A lawsuit is then filed, and the case proceeds on the trial docket
5. The insurance company continues the low settlement offers – even at mediation (which in turn becomes a waste of time and money because they didn’t have any plans to actually settle the case at that time)