How Our Lawyers Handle a State Farm Injury Claim

How our lawyers handle a State Farm injury claim largely depends on how their adjuster approaches your claim. State Farm goes to great lengths to advertise a friendly, even neighborly relationship with its customers, complete with a catchy jingle: “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” —Don’t be fooled.

State Farm is responsible for paying substantial compensation to claimants as the nation’s number one claims writer for private passenger auto, commercial auto, homeowners, and property/casualty insurance premiums.

They may sound friendly on the other end of the telephone. However, they are trained to get you to make statements they can use to deny your claim. It is their ultimate goal in speaking to you. Don’t fall victim to their shady practices.

Schedule a free consultation with our Altoona personal injury lawyers to discuss the circumstances of your State Farm injury claim, including the right to compensation. We will immediately begin communicating with them on your behalf so you can focus on recovery.

Schedule a Free Initial Consultation Today!

Challenges People Encounter When Filing a State Farm Injury Claim Alone

As the largest insurance company in the U.S., State Farm prioritizes protecting the company. When an insurance company knows they don’t have to deal with legal professionals who handle State Farm injury claims daily, they use tactics such as:

• Denying Claims: Unrepresented accident victims’ most common challenge with State Farm is having their claim denied outright. State Farm may cite a lack of proper policy coverage or make allegations of fraudulent injury claims.
• Disputing Injuries: State Farm is notorious for disputing the severity of a claimant’s injuries. They may use recorded statements and social media posts to downplay your injuries.
• Pre-Existing Injury Claims: State Farm may examine your medical history for pre-existing conditions. It’s common for them to dismiss new symptoms as symptoms of pre-existing conditions.
• Send Lowball Settlement Offers: State Farm typically offers low initial settlement offers. They know that some accident victims are desperate to start paying off debts incurred from the accident and may feel pressured to accept lower offers.
• Use Unresponsive Claims Adjusters: State Farm may stall the duration of your claim by using unresponsive claim adjusters to manage your case. Unresponsive State Farm claim adjusters deliberately fail to communicate, hoping to exhaust accident victims into settling early and for the terms of their first lowball offer.

State Farm uses a claim estimating software called TEACH (Total Evaluation and Claims Handling) to determine their estimate of your claim’s value. But let’s be honest. It often undervalues losses, calculating settlements well beneath market value.

Our personal injury lawyers are aware of State Farm’s undervaluing tactics and will fight for fairer settlements.

Meeting at Your Free Consultation

During our initial consultation, we will meet for the first time to evaluate your case and determine a plan for recovering financial and intangible losses. Your primary focus throughout this process is to maintain medical care and delegate unnecessary stress, such as handling the legal aftermath of your accident.

Managing Communications With State Farm

Our top priority is your legal protection and right to recover compensation for financial losses incurred in the accident. Once we establish an attorney-client relationship, our lawyers will handle all further communications with State Farm and combat any tactics by claims adjusters to limit payouts.

Collecting Evidence

Evidence collection is a critical part of the claim process. Your personal injury attorney will gather documentation and other evidence to prove liability in your State Farm injury claim. The evidence we generally collect includes the following:

• Police report
• Eyewitness statements
• Photos of the accident scene, vehicles, and your injuries right after the accident
• Dashcam footage from vehicles involved in an accident
• Residential and commercial surveillance footage
• Medical records
• Medical bills and other out-of-pocket expenses

Analyzing Evidence With the Help of Experts

After gathering the evidence in your case, our experienced personal injury attorneys will analyze it thoroughly with the help of relevant expert witnesses. Standard experts we may use to strengthen your State Farm injury claim include:

• Medical experts (general practitioners, orthopedic and neurosurgeons, physical therapists)
• Mental health experts
• Accident reconstruction experts (reconstruct accident scene to prove the causation element of negligence)
• Vehicle safety experts
• Vocational experts (establish diminished earning capacity)
• Economic experts (calculate the value of lost earnings over time)

Expert testimony is often valuable for establishing injuries and damages and may lead to a substantially larger settlement.

Valuing Your State Farm Claim

Valuing your State Farm injury claim involves determining all losses, including monetary and non-monetary damages. We will calculate these using your paper trail and expert witness testimony. We commonly secure compensation in State Farm injury claims, for the following:

• Medical Costs: All medical expenses, such as emergency services, primary care visits, surgeries, hospitalizations, prescription medications, medical devices, and future medical costs.
• Disability Costs: All disability-related expenses, including home and transportation mobility modifications (chair lifts, ramps), home health services, and the cost of obtaining and caring for a service animal.
• Pain and Suffering: All intangible losses, including sleep disturbances, emotional distress, chronic pain, disfigurement, decreased life expectancy, reduced quality of life, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and loss of companionship.
• Income Losses: All sources of lost income include wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, promotions, health, retirement, and pension benefits.

Diminished earning capacity is another income loss that may be recovered when life-changing injuries limit or prevent you from returning to work. Factors considered include age, education, occupation, projected career trajectory, and health before the accident.

Reviewing State Farm’s First Settlement Offer

State Farm will almost certainly send an insulting low first settlement offer. Their mission is to settle for as little money as possible. We will review and advise you on whether you should take it or if we can secure additional compensation. While our personal injury attorneys will inform you, the decision ultimately rests with you.

Negotiating a Fair Settlement With State Farm

Negotiating a fair settlement with State Farm can be daunting for inexperienced accident victims. Our aggressive attorneys are skilled negotiators who handle State Farm injury claims with the intention of maximizing compensation.

While it typically takes a few rounds of negotiations before a settlement is agreed upon, most of our cases settle outside of the courtroom. That said, out of all the major insurance companies, State Farm tends to be more prepared than the others to take their claims to trial.

Litigating Your Case

We settle most of our State Farm injury claims outside of court. However, depending on the nature of your claim, we will prepare for it. The litigation process involves:

• File your lawsuit (submit all necessary documentation)
• Discovery process (exchange of evidence and depositions)
• Pre-trial motions (legal strategies intended to resolve specific aspects before trial)
• Trial proceedings
• Verdict (judge or jury consider the evidence and issue their decision)

We settle most of our State Farm injury claims outside of court. However, depending on the nature of your claim, we will prepare for it. The litigation process involves:

Let Our Lawyers Handle Your State Farm Injury Claim

Filing a State Farm injury claim may present many challenges for inexperienced people navigating insurance claims and our legal system. Allow us to be of service to you. Let our lawyers handle your State Farm claim to maximize compensation.

Schedule a free consultation with our personal injury attorneys at Marcus & Mack to begin your case evaluation and file your insurance claim before the statute of limitations runs out.

Schedule a Free Initial Consultation Today!