If you were in a car accident in Georgia and received a settlement offer from the other driver’s insurance company, it can be tempting to take it and move on. Whether an offer is fair depends not just on the amount, but on when it arrives and how much is known about your injuries and losses at that point.
If you’re still treating, or you don’t yet know whether you’ll need more care or more time off work, nobody can tell you yet whether the offer covers what the crash cost you.
This guide walks through how to check a car settlement offer yourself: what it has to cover, how to tell if it came too soon, what to ask the adjuster in writing, and what you give up when you sign. It’s general information about Georgia law, not advice about your particular claim.
And if you were hurt in a crash in or around Savannah, our experienced Savannah car accident lawyers can look over an offer with you before you respond.
What should you know before you look at the car accident settlement?
Before we even look at the amount, we want to know three things. What would you be giving up by accepting it? Are your injuries and your future treatment fully understood? And are there other insurance policies, or medical bills that have to be repaid, that change what you’d actually take home?
Those questions matter because a settlement is usually final. The amount in the letter may also not be the amount you keep. Medical bills or repayment claims, for example from a health plan that paid for your treatment, may have to come out of the settlement.
What does the settlement offer have to cover?
Add up what the crash has cost you so far and what it’s still going to cost. Write it down, line by line, before you compare it to the offer.
- Medical bills to date, including the emergency room, imaging, follow-up visits and therapy
- Treatment your doctor says you’ll still need
- Pay you’ve lost from missed work, and any work you’ll still miss
- Travel to and from appointments
- Prescriptions and medical supplies
- Damage to your car and property
- How the pain, and the stress, keep affecting your everyday life
In our experience, the items people most often leave out are the less obvious ones: future care, time off work, travel and prescription costs, and the way pain or stress keeps showing up in ordinary days.
If the offer doesn’t come close to the total, ask the adjuster which of your costs it covers and which it leaves out. That question belongs in writing (more on that below).
Our Georgia car accident settlement calculator is one way to start organizing those numbers, and our article on personal injury settlement amounts in Georgia walks through examples.
Is it too soon to know if you should accept the settlement?
It’s too early to settle if you’re still treating, still waiting on answers from your doctors, or don’t yet know whether you’ll need future care, miss more work, or have lasting symptoms.
Nearly nine in ten of our settled car accident cases resolved more than six months after the crash. Every case is different, and that isn’t a prediction for yours, but it shows how long the full picture of an injury usually takes to come into focus.
We generally wait until a person’s condition has stabilized and their doctor can give a clear prognosis. At that point the offer can be measured against the full effect of the injury, not a guess about it. An offer that arrives in the first few weeks after a crash is based on far less information than you’ll have later, once you have a clearer picture of your recovery.
Signs a car accident settlement offer may be low or early
We treat certain early actions by an adjuster as red flags that the claim may be getting worked down:
- Pressing you for a recorded statement right away
- Asking for your whole medical history, not just the records related to the crash
- Suggesting your injuries were there before the crash
- Making a quick offer before you know how you’re healing
When you see these red flags, check the offer against your own numbers before you respond. This is also a particularly important point to speak with an attorney because the insurer may already be taking steps to reduce the value of your claim.
When the offer is the policy limit
Sometimes an adjuster offers the full limit of the at-fault driver’s policy. That may be all that policy will pay, but it does not necessarily cover the full value of your injuries and losses.
If your damages are higher, check for other sources of recovery, including additional policies, other responsible parties, or your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. Also account for medical bills, liens, and repayment claims. If the numbers still don’t add up, talk with an attorney before signing a release because accepting the policy limits may affect what you can pursue next.
If the at-fault driver had no insurance at all, see what happens when the at-fault driver has no insurance in a Georgia car accident.
What signing a release means
To collect a settlement, you’ll be asked to sign a release. Signing usually means you can’t come back for more if new bills or new symptoms show up later. The release is the paperwork that ends the claim, which is why the time to be sure about your injuries is before you sign it, not after.
Ask for the release before you agree to anything, and read what it releases and whom.
How Georgia law shapes the negotiation
The deadline keeps running. Georgia gives you two years to file a lawsuit for injuries to the person, with some exceptions, and the two years count from when the right to sue arises, not from when an insurer makes an offer (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). If a city, a county or the state may be responsible, for example through a government vehicle, shorter deadlines apply to the written notice or claim: six months for a city (O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5), and 12 months for a county (O.C.G.A. § 36-11-1) or the state (O.C.G.A. § 50-21-26).
Your share of the fault matters. Georgia reduces what an injured person can recover by their own percentage of fault, and an injured person who is 50 percent or more responsible recovers nothing (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33). If an adjuster says you were partly to blame, that claim is part of how the offer was calculated, and it’s worth asking what it’s based on.
Offers made through a lawyer follow set rules. Before a lawsuit is answered, a written offer to settle a car crash injury claim that a lawyer prepares for you must give the other side (usually its insurer) at least 30 days from receipt to accept and at least 40 days from receipt to pay. It must include the medical or other records needed to evaluate the claim, and it can require the insurer to state under oath whether it has disclosed all the insurance that may cover the claim (O.C.G.A. § 9-11-67.1). The insurer can ask for clarification in writing about the release, liens, medical bills and records without that counting as a counteroffer.
What to ask the adjuster in writing
Before you decide to accept the settlement, ask the adjuster to:
- Put the offer in writing
- Explain what the offer covers and what it leaves out
- Confirm how much insurance is available
- Send you the paperwork you would have to sign
Keep copies of everything you send and receive. If you believe the insurer isn’t handling your claim properly, Georgia’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire takes consumer complaints. It asks you to contact the insurance company and try to resolve the problem first.
When is it reasonable to settle without a lawyer?
It may be reasonable to settle without a lawyer when the injuries are minor, your recovery is complete or predictable, fault is clear, and there are no meaningful questions about coverage, future treatment, lost income, or other losses.
Even then, knowing your medical bills isn’t the same as knowing what the claim is worth. Injury claims can include losses that don’t come with an invoice, and there is no single formula for valuing pain, limitations, or the impact on your life.
Before accepting an offer, make sure you understand what has been included, what may be missing, whether any bills or liens still need to be paid, and what rights you’re giving up. If you’re unsure about any of that, having a personal injury lawyer review the claim before you sign can help you see whether the offer reflects the full picture. Once you sign a release, you generally don’t get another chance.
Jamie Casino Injury Attorneys has represented injured people in Georgia and South Carolina since 2006, and we represent only injured people, never insurance companies. Our team brings over 40 years of combined experience, our offices are open 24 hours, and we serve clients in English and Spanish.
Have a car accident settlement offer? We’ll look it over.
Frequently asked questions
Should I accept the first settlement offer after a car accident?
Not before you can check it against your own numbers. If you’re still treating, or you don’t yet know whether you’ll need more care or more time off work, the offer can’t reflect the full effect of the injury. We generally wait until your condition has stabilized and your doctor can give a clear prognosis.
How long does an insurance company have to respond to a settlement offer in Georgia?
For a written, pre-suit offer to settle a car crash injury claim that a lawyer prepares, Georgia law requires the offer to give the insurer at least 30 days from receipt to accept (O.C.G.A. § 9-11-67.1). An offer the insurer makes to you carries whatever deadline the insurer sets; ask for it in writing.
Can I reopen a car accident claim after I sign a release?
Usually not. Signing a settlement release usually means you can’t come back for more if new bills or symptoms show up later. That’s why it matters to understand your injuries and future treatment before you sign.
What if the car accident settlement offer doesn’t cover my medical bills?
Ask the adjuster, in writing, to explain what the offer covers and what it leaves out, and to confirm how much insurance is available. Check whether any medical bills or repayment claims will come out of the settlement, and whether your own insurance may cover part of the gap. Our guide to negotiating medical bills after a settlement covers what happens to those bills.
Do I need a lawyer to negotiate a car accident settlement?
Not always. A very simple, fully resolved claim may not need one. If there’s uncertainty about your injuries, future treatment, fault, coverage or the paperwork, it’s smart to have a lawyer look it over before you sign.
