Negotiating ICBC Settlement Offers

Adjusters use financial and emotional manipulation to minimize the value of ICBC settlement offers. Based on the ICBC Negotiation Tactics series published by Paul Hergott, here are the highlights of strategies behind ICBC settlement offers:

Negotiation Strategies Behind ICBC Settlement Offers:

24 Hour Deadline
Lowball Offers
Settling Based On Optimism

Keeping You In The Dark
Bottom Line Offer

#1 – 24 Hour Deadlines

Short deadlines are effective for getting results in a negotiation process. When presenting a 24 hour deadline to accept ICBC settlement offers, the goal is to:

Create pressure & anxiety, encouraging you to make poorly thought out decisions, and
To prevent you from having time to seek out legal advice

#2 – Lowball Offers

Lowball ICBC settlement offers are made to take advantage of the fact that you don’t know what your claim is worth. Starting really low gives the illusion that you’ve “won” when you are able to negotiate multiple times their initial offer.

Even when ICBC settlement offers are quadrupled, the amount is likely still nowhere near the true value of the claim. Read here about a case where ICBC offered $8,000 and Hergott Law settled for over $800,000.

Read more here: ICBC Negotiation Tactics: Lowball offers

#3 – Settling Based On Optimism

ICBC is motivated to settle your case quickly, before the full extent of your injuries has appeared. Car crash victims and their medical teams are often optimistic that a full recovery will be made. Optimism can be helpful for your recovery, and car crash victims do not like to think they may have a sustained life long debilitating injuries.

ICBC will play off your optimism and encourage you to settle your case quickly. When a claim is closed quickly, the opportunity for long-term injury compensation disappears, as well as the opportunity to hire a lawyer.

#4 – Keeping You In The Dark

Not only does your ICBC adjuster stand to benefit from your ignorance, they have no obligation to inform you of your legal rights. The less you know, the easier it is to minimize ICBC settlement offers.

Here are examples of financial compensation that you are entitled to and that adjusters are unlikely to include in their ICBC settlement offers:

You are entitled to a $0.50/km reimbursement for trips made to car crash injury related medical appointments
Your injury claim should include a valuation for potential loss of capacity to earn income (read more here)

#5 – Bottom Line Offer

It does not take long to hear ICBC’s “last settlement offer.” Sometimes this negotiation strategy is a bluff and other times your adjuster has truly reached their limit under the current circumstances.

One thing we can guarantee is that another ICBC settlement offer is always put on the negotiation table after you hire a lawyer.

ICBC Negotiation Tactics Series:

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ICBC Settlement Negotiations