Accepting a Settlement Offer for Your Child’s Injury

Answer:

We’ve had clients do incredibly smart things. We had a client the other day who came in for a consultation because their child had been injured at daycare, and the insurance company came back and offered her a check to resolve the case immediately. She felt that was a little bit strange, came to us, and, sure enough, she was right. When insurance companies do that, they are trying to resolve the claim for the least amount of money possible. They recognize that they’re at fault or that they may have some exposure, and rather than waiting until your child is done with the treatment, waiting until we know exactly what your child’s injuries are, they want to close out the case.

When you do this, you’re shortchanging your child. Initially it’s because your child, usually at that stage, has not finished all their treatment, which means we don’t know what the damages or what the injuries actually are. If you accept an amount now, that amount may be completely inappropriate for the type of injuries that your child sustained. It’s very important that you consult with an attorney and that you allow the process to go forward, as tempting as it can be to take that offer. An attorney can evaluate the case appropriately and tell you based on these injuries, based on how long they’ve treated, based on what they have pending in the future, what they think the case is worth.

Sure enough, our client – we were already well above the initial offer that the insurance company made – was going to recover a lot more than if she would have just taken the insurance company’s initial offer. If you have any questions or an insurance company has made an offer to you, feel free to give us a call for a free consultation. We’d be happy to discuss the case with you, even if it’s just to tell you whether or not that offer is fair. It’s a completely free consultation, so feel free to give us a call.