When it comes time to file a claim against a big-name insurance provider like American Family Insurance, you may wonder how the claim will proceed and whether you even have the means to fight back against them. American Family Insurance has an experienced legal team that may fight aggressively to minimize the compensation the company has to pay.
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we have extensive experience dealing with claims against American Family Insurance. Take a look at how we handle the claim process and how we can help maximize compensation for victims of serious injuries who may need to pursue compensation for those injuries.
What Does American Family Insurance Cover?
American Family Insurance offers home, office, and auto insurance policies. You may need to file a claim through American Family Insurance if:
You suffered a severe injury from a collision with a vehicle driven by a driver covered by American Family Insurance.
Auto accidents often lead to substantial property damage and immense injury. In many cases, auto accidents will lead to injuries that may cause ongoing complications and high medical bills. If the driver covered by American Family Insurance caused or contributed to your accident, you might need to pursue compensation through that driver’s insurance policy.
You suffered injuries at a property covered by American Family Insurance due to the property owner’s negligence.
Premises liability accidents can occur for several reasons. Sometimes, you may have an accident on someone else’s property due to no fault on the property owner’s part.
In other cases, however, you may suffer injuries because of:
- A dog attack
- A damaged area
- Lack of warning about potential dangers in the area
When you suffer injuries due to negligence on the property owner’s part, you may need to file a claim against American Family Insurance.
You hold a policy through American Family Insurance and must file a claim.
Sometimes, you may need to file a claim through your American Family Insurance policy, even if another party caused your accident. Suppose you suffered injuries in a car accident with a driver with comprehensive or uninsured motorist coverage, just not enough to cover your losses. In that case, you might need to file a claim through your American Family Insurance plan to get compensation for those losses.
In many cases, you may get the same compensation from your personal insurance coverage that you would from the liable party’s insurance company. However, you may find yourself dealing with the same struggles you would in dealing with another party’s insurance company as you seek compensation through that policy.
Challenges Presented by American Family Insurance and Other Insurance Companies
Agents at American Family Insurance, like agents at many other insurance companies, may use various strategies to decrease the compensation the company has to pay.
Low Settlement Offers
Shortly after your accident, you may get an early settlement offer from the insurance company. Many insurance agents will pressure you heavily to accept that early settlement offer. They may try to make that offer sound as appealing as possible. However, that offer may come before you can fully determine your long-term financial losses.
A low settlement offer may sound like a great idea since it would provide you with ready compensation for your injuries. However, long term, you might have much more severe financial losses than you initially expected.
Denying Liability
Often, insurance companies will attempt to deny liability for an accident caused by the party they cover. American Family Insurance may insist that you caused or contributed to the accident or that an outside party bears primary liability for the incident.
Denying the Extent of Your Injuries
Often, American Family Insurance and other insurance companies will deny the full extent of the injuries you sustained during the accident. The insurance company may insist that you suffered those injuries at another time, that you do not need the treatments you included as part of your claim, or that your injuries do not cause the long-term limitations you described.
How We Handle American Family Insurance Claims
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we have extensive experience dealing with various claims through American Family Insurance. We help our clients achieve the best possible results in their claims by using strategies to help increase the compensation our clients can recover.
We look over the full insurance policy to identify what coverage it offers.
In many cases, the terms of an American Family Insurance policy will dictate what coverage you can expect from your claim. The policy will offer vital information about the compensation you can expect to recover following a devastating accident.
How much coverage does the policy offer?
You deserve financial compensation for your losses when you suffer serious injuries or property damage. American Family Insurance policies provide that compensation on behalf of or for the individuals covered by its policy. Most insurance policies, however, do not offer unlimited compensation for your losses. In some cases, particularly if you suffer severe injuries or immense property damage, the policy will limit the compensation you can ultimately recover.
Suppose you suffered a spinal cord injury in an accident with a driver covered by American Family Insurance. You may have high ongoing medical bills, in some cases including bills you may have to worry about for the rest of your life. In that case, the policy might have strict limits regarding how much compensation you can recover.
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we look at all the limits of the insurance policy so that we help you maximize the compensation you can recover for those devastating injuries. We aim to help you identify the full compensation you may deserve based on the terms of the policy. We will also look through what elements of compensation the policy offers so that you can include all of them as part of your injury claim.
Are there any specific riders or exceptions to the policy?
As we examine the insurance policy, we help look for loopholes or extra riders that may allow you to pursue more compensation for the damages you suffered from the accident. For example, some American Family Insurance policies may offer additional compensation for catastrophic injuries, including amputation or loss of one of the senses.
However, an insurance agent might not necessarily tell you about those additional elements of compensation. We aim to look over all the insurance policy details to ensure that we have all the necessary information to help you maximize the compensation you can recover through that policy.
We also look into riders that may add additional compensation based on the losses you sustained. Suppose you have a homeowners insurance policy through American Family Insurance. You might need to use that policy after suffering water damage in your home. However, you might not know whether you can use your policy to cover that water damage since many insurance providers will not cover flooding.
We will look at your policy to better understand your specific coverage and how you can maximize the compensation you can recover, including carefully evaluating what riders you may carry on your homeowner’s insurance.
We collect any needed evidence regarding your accident and injuries and use that information to put together a comprehensive claim on your behalf.
Often, insurance companies will try to prove that the individual or entity they cover did not cause your damages, which would mean that the insurance company does not have to pay compensation for them. You may struggle to get compensation for your injuries, especially in cases where you may have sustained heavy damages.
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we closely look at all the factors that may have contributed to your accident and lay out the evidence needed to establish who caused your injuries.
We interview any witnesses to the accident promptly.
Eyewitness testimony often provides the best look at what may have led to an accident. Witnesses often have a clearer view of what may have caused or contributed to the accident than the people involved since they could see everything that took place. For example, in a car accident, a witness might see both drivers, which means the witness might have a better idea of which driver caused or contributed to the accident.
Interviewing witnesses quickly after an accident can make a big difference in the quality of their testimony. Memory, particularly traumatic events, can fade rapidly, and witness memory frequently proves unreliable. At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we aim to capture those vital testimonies as soon as after the incident as possible to provide a more reliable look at what likely contributed to the accident.
We look for any video footage that might make the incident clearer.
Video footage can provide vital, valuable insights into exactly what led to the accident. Video footage might mean footage from security cameras, dash cameras from a car accident, or even traffic cameras. We aim to collect that video footage quickly after an accident so we can store that information quickly before any footage from the incident gets deleted.
We look over the accident scene, where possible.
Sometimes, geographic features of an accident scene may contribute to the incident. When necessary and possible, we may visit the accident scene to understand the area. We may also review any physical evidence from the accident. After an accident at a property covered by American Family Insurance, we closely examine the property to evaluate what likely contributed to that accident.
When necessary, we bring in expert witnesses to help recreate exactly what likely caused the accident.
Sometimes, an expert witness can help recreate the accident scene and better understand how it occurred. An expert witness can help you look over the conditions that led to the accident and provide any needed insights into factors that may have contributed, including outside factors that you may not have considered. Expert witness testimony can prove critical in establishing what led to an accident.
We review your medical condition and your care providers’ testimony to make a compelling claim.
Frequently, the testimony from your medical care providers will significantly affect the compensation you recover. The extent of your injuries and the care you need will showcase the damages you sustained in the accident. We help look over your medical records, then use them to build your claim. If necessary, we will also bring in expert medical witnesses to testify about your injuries and the damages you sustained in the accident.
We negotiate aggressively to help you get the compensation you deserve.
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we believe that our clients deserve compensation for all damages they may have sustained in an accident. We negotiate aggressively to help them acquire that full compensation. We fight the insurance company on your behalf so that you can maximize the results you can obtain.
Do You Need a Lawyer to Help with Your American Family Insurance Claim?
A lawyer can make that process much smoother if you need help filing a claim with American Family Insurance. Contact Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers today at (715) 226-6149 for a free consultation that will help you better understand the compensation you should expect after your accident and how we can help fight for you.