A pre-medical offer is an offer made by the Defendant’s insurer to settle your claim without the need for medical evidence in support of your injuries.
These offers are usually made when the accident is pretty straight forward, liability is not an issue, and the insurer just wants the case off their desk. If you have a legal representative, they should inform you of the risks of accepting such an offer once it has been made.
Basically, the main issue we at The Injury Lawyers have with pre-medical offers is that, if accepted, you never know if this accurately reflects the amount of compensation you deserve.
For example, the average pre-medical offer made in a personal injury claim is around £1000.00. Now this typically represents an injury which you will have been suffering from for around 4-6 weeks. Accepting the offer will seem so tempting as it is quite a large sum of money however if you accept and you continue to suffer with your injuries 6 months later, what happens then???
Let me tell you that – if you have settled the claim in full and final, nothing further can be done to obtain any further compensation for the additional period you have suffered for, and nothing can be done to recover any further losses, or acquire further treatment privately, etc. Once a full and final offer is accepted, it is in full and final settlement of your claim and you are unable to make any further claims against them.
Here at The Injury Lawyers we receive a significant number of calls from people who have settled their claim this way direct with the defendant’s insurer and have been mislead. A lot of the time these offers are made for the whole of your claim which includes any other losses you may have incurred as a result of the accident such as lost earnings or medication/treatment expenses. This is very often not explained to clients very well and they think that the amount being offered is just for the injury and therefore believe that other losses will be paid in addition. This is not the case. The offers are usually for all losses. This means that client’s are very often left out of pocket.
This is why it is always important to have legal representatives in personal injury claims as they/we are there to guide you through and provide you with professional advice on the offers made and the reasonability of it. Sadly, for many who get in touch with us, it’s just too late for us to help them out…
This time of year sees an enormous increase in the amount of pre-medical offers being made. CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!!
Insurers are aware that people are more strapped for cash at this time of year and therefore more likely to accept a pre-medical offer in order to aid with the financial stress that Christmas can bring. As previously stated, accepting such an offer can seem a great idea when you have presents to buy, Christmas decorations and of course pay for the extortionate Christmas food shop; but people are potentially not getting entirely what they deserve when accepting such an offer.
Obviously all cases are different and in some scenarios, accepting a pre-medical offer is the best solution all round however these types of cases are few and far between. So, give us a call and get some legal advice on your claim. Our Claims Line Team are here to help. Call us free on 0800 634 75 75
