When you suffer a personal injury from a car accident, slip and fall, or another incident caused by someone else’s negligence, the insurance company’s adjuster may contact you soon, often before you fully understand the extent of your injuries. Their job is not to make you whole. Their job is to minimize the payout. This blog explains five of the most common “tricks” adjusters use to devalue personal injury claims, why they matter, and what you can do to protect yourself.
Why It Matters
After an accident, victims often face mounting medical bills, lost income, and uncertainty about long‑term care. Insurance adjusters, trained to protect company profits, know many people want a quick resolution. By offering a fast, low settlement or by undermining the claim’s value, adjusters pressure people into signing away their rights before real damages are known. Understanding their tactics is the first step to preventing that from happening.
Trick #1: The Quick, Lowball Settlement Offer
One of the most common strategies is the early “lowball” offer. Adjusters may reach out days or even hours after the accident, presenting what seems like a generous settlement, often when victims have unpaid medical bills or urgent expenses.
- These offers rarely reflect the full value of the claim, especially when long‑term treatment or complications may arise.
- Accepting a premature settlement typically means you waive the right to recover future medical costs, lost wages, or pain and suffering that may become evident later.
- Insurance companies present such offers as “fair” or “time‑sensitive” to pressure claimants into acting before consulting a lawyer or getting full medical evaluations.
Bottom line: Don’t accept the first offer without knowing the full scope of your injuries and likely future costs.
Trick #2: Downplaying or Disputing Your Injuries
Adjusters often attempt to minimize or downplay the severity of injuries or even claim they pre‑existed the accident. Common approaches include:
- Asserting that your complaints are exaggerated, or that medical treatment was unnecessary or too extensive.
- Suggesting alternative causes for your injuries (e.g., prior conditions, unrelated incidents) to reduce liability.
- Questioning necessity, reasonableness, or cost of treatment, especially for long-term care or therapy.
Since many injuries (soft tissue, concussion, chronic pain) evolve over time, early downplaying is a major risk.
Trick #3: Overloading You With Documentation and Delay
Another common tactic is to slow down the claims process or overwhelm you with document requests. In doing so, adjusters hope to frustrate claimants into giving up or accepting less. Strategies include:
- Excessive demands for medical records, often covering many years, some unrelated to the accident, in hopes of uncovering prior conditions or inconsistencies.
- Repeated requests for the same documents, long response times, or “lost paperwork,” designed to cause delay and confusion.
- Artificial deadlines or pressure to respond quickly before the claimant has a chance to evaluate their damages.
Why this matters: delays increase financial and emotional pressure. The longer bills mount and you wait for treatment, the more likely you are to accept a subpar offer just to get closure.
Trick #4: Getting You to Make a Statement and Using It Against You
Insurance adjusters often ask for recorded or written statements shortly after the accident. While this may seem routine or harmless, it’s a high-risk move:
- Minor inconsistencies, innocent remarks, or casual statements (“I feel okay,” “It wasn’t my fault,” etc.) can be twisted to challenge your credibility or suggest the injury is minor.
- Adjusters may indicate the statement is just for clarity, but use it later to argue you are partly at fault or exaggerating.
- They may encourage you to sign broad medical‑authorization releases to comb through your entire medical history for unrelated conditions.
Best practice: decline recorded statements without legal representation. Provide only what is appropriate and necessary under advisement from a qualified Naperville personal injury attorney.
Trick #5: Misrepresenting the Insurance Policy or Coverage
Insurance policies are often long, complex documents. Adjusters sometimes exploit that complexity to mislead claimants about what is covered, limiting payouts or denying certain damages. Common misrepresentations include:
- Claiming certain injuries, treatments, or damages are excluded, even when they may be covered under the policy.
- Suggesting policy limits are lower than they actually are, pushing claimants to settle when a higher payout is possible.
- Arguing that some damages are speculative, unproven, or “not serious enough,” even with proper medical documentation.
Without careful review by an attorney, you may unknowingly accept less than what your policy entitles you to.
How to Protect Yourself: What Claimants Should Do
Recognizing these tactics is half the battle. To guard against adjuster tricks, consider these strategies:
- Document everything: medical records, bills, therapy, lost wages, pain and suffering, treatment notes, photos of injuries or damaged property, and all communications with the insurance adjuster.
- Decline recorded statements until you consult a lawyer. Avoid unsupervised conversations that could be used against you.
- Avoid quick settlement offers. Wait until medical treatment is complete (or at least clearly defined) before evaluating whether to settle.
- Don’t sign broad medical‑release forms. Limit access to records only to those relevant to the claim.
- Review the insurance policy carefully. Know what coverage you’re entitled to before negotiating.
- Get experienced legal representation. An Naperville injury attorney can level the playing field, handle communications, challenge unfair tactics, and negotiate or litigate for full compensation.
Why Legal Representation Matters
Insurance adjusters are not neutral parties. Their training and performance metrics often reward minimal payouts and fast closures. When a claimant retains a qualified personal injury attorney, the advantage shifts:
- Attorneys understand how to compile and present evidence to counter lowball offers.
- Insurers often increase offers, sometimes significantly, when they know a lawyer is involved and that the case may proceed to litigation.
- Legal counsel can help identify all damages: past and future medical costs, lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of quality of life, and more.
In short: having a lawyer can make a material difference in your recovery.
Common Adjuster Tricks: Quick Reference
| Trick / Tactic | What to Watch Out For |
| Early lowball settlement offer | Tempting quick money but undervalues long‑term costs |
| Downplaying injuries / denying severity | Suggesting your pain or treatment is exaggerated or unnecessary |
| Delays and excessive documentation | Requesting unrelated records or repeatedly asking for the same info to stall the claim |
| Recorded statements & broad authorizations | Statements used against you later; unnecessary release of unrelated medical history |
| Misrepresenting policy terms / coverage limits | Claiming exclusions or lower coverage than actually in force |
Real-World Impact: Why These Tricks Harm Injured People
Consider a common scenario: a rear‑end collision. The day after the crash, you receive a settlement offer to cover “hospital visit and car damage.” If you accept, you waive your right to future therapy, even if months later you still experience neck pain, headaches, lost wages, or need ongoing physical therapy. Because the adjuster pressured you early with a quick offer, you are stuck covering the rest.
In another scenario, you might hesitate when asked for a recorded statement. A simple misstatement, “I feel okay today”, can be used to argue you weren’t seriously injured, even though pain and limitations grew over time.
These outcomes happen frequently because adjusters know most claimants are not lawyers, do not fully understand policies, and want closure quickly. Their tactics succeed when people act without full information.
Contact the 5-Star Rated Naperville Personal Injury Attorneys at John J. Malm & Associates
Insurance adjusters have one job: minimize what the insurance company pays out. Accepting their tactics, lowball offers, delays, excessive documentation demands, or quick settlements, too often means accepting less than you deserve, or waiving your rights entirely.
If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s negligence, treat the “first offer” as a starting point, not the finish line. Preserve all evidence, keep detailed records, avoid recorded statements without counsel, and carefully review any settlement or release forms.
At John J. Malm & Associates, our firm is experienced in representing individuals who have been harmed and then undervalued or mistreated by insurance adjusters. We know their patterns. We know their tricks. And we know how to respond.
If you or a loved one sustained injuries and face pressure from an insurance company to accept a quick settlement, contact us for a free consultation. We will evaluate your case, help you understand the real value of your claim, and aggressively pursue full and fair compensation, not the low‑ball offer the company would prefer.
Let us fight for your rights and help you get the recovery you deserve.