Are insurance companies fighting harder to deny or lowball settlement offers due to their own economic constraints since covid hit?
The types of settlement offers received for claims depend on the company. We have been able to reach good six-figure settlements that would not have been a dollar less pre-COVID era. However, that’s not always the case. There are a number of claims where we have hit a bit of a holding pattern with the lawyer and the insurance company on the other side. There could be a number of factors as to why that might be, but I think that COVID is definitely a very big factor. They know that they don’t have a trial next month. They may not want to pay now to keep the money in their pocket as long as possible. Without a trial looming, they’re not even motivated to fully evaluate the claim at this point. It doesn’t really matter what the reason is, the bottom-line is the same. It is definitely taking longer to resolve cases right now.