Written by After a serious accident in Chicago, you’ll likely hear from an insurance adjuster within days, sometimes within hours. The call can sound almost reassuring: someone checking in, asking how you’re feeling, offering to “help you get this sorted out quickly.” What that framing leaves out is that the adjuster’s job performance is measured by how little their company pays on your claim, not by how fairly they treat you. Every dollar they keep off your settlement is a dollar their employer doesn’t have to pay out, and that conflict of interest shapes the entire relationship from the first phone call onward.
Understanding What an Adjuster Actually Does
Insurance adjusters are trained, and often incentivized, to resolve claims for as little as the company can reasonably get away with. That doesn’t mean every adjuster is acting in bad faith on every call. Many are simply following a playbook built over decades of claims experience, a set of scripts and procedures designed to move claimants toward a quick, low number before they understand what their case is actually worth. Recognizing the playbook is the first real defense against it.
It helps to remember who the adjuster works for. They are an employee or contractor of the insurance company, not a neutral third party assessing your damages fairly. Their salary, bonus structure, and performance reviews are tied, directly or indirectly, to how efficiently they close files under budget. That’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s simply how the business is built, and understanding it changes how you should approach every conversation that follows.
The Quick, Lowball Settlement Offer
One of the most common tactics is a fast settlement offer made before you understand the full extent of your injuries. An adjuster might call within the first week offering what sounds like a meaningful sum, $5,000, $10,000, sometimes more, framed as a way to “help you get back on your feet” while your claim is still fresh.
The catch sits in the fine print. Accepting any settlement requires signing a release of all claims. Once you sign, you cannot come back for more money even if your injuries turn out to be far worse than they seemed in the first week. A soft tissue injury that looks minor at first can develop into chronic pain requiring years of treatment, and a strain that seems resolved after a week of rest can mask a herniated disc that doesn’t show symptoms until months later. A quick $10,000 settlement, accepted before an MRI or a specialist evaluation, can end up costing an injured person hundreds of thousands of dollars in future medical care they signed away the right to recover.
Consider a hypothetical, not a real case: a delivery driver rear-ended at a stoplight feels sore but not seriously hurt, and accepts an $8,000 offer within ten days rather than deal with the hassle of a longer claim. Six weeks later, persistent numbness in his arm turns out to be a herniated cervical disc requiring surgery and months of physical therapy, medical bills that run well past $80,000. Because he signed a release, none of that is recoverable. The math on a quick offer almost never favors the injured person, which is exactly why adjusters lead with speed rather than accuracy.
Recorded Statement Requests
Adjusters routinely ask for a recorded statement shortly after an accident, framed as standard procedure to “get your side of the story.” What they’re actually gathering is raw material: admissions of fault, even partial ones (“I probably should have been paying closer attention”), inconsistencies they can use later to challenge your credibility, statements that minimize your injuries (“I’m a little sore but okay”), and anything that can be lifted out of context months later in a deposition or at trial.
Illinois law does not require you to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company. That obligation simply doesn’t exist for a third-party claim. Your own insurer is a different story, most auto policies include a cooperation clause requiring you to cooperate with your own carrier’s investigation, which can include providing a statement. The distinction matters: politely decline a recorded statement to the at-fault driver’s insurer entirely, and if your own insurer asks, get advice on how to handle it before you do.
Surveillance and Social Media Monitoring
Insurance companies regularly hire private investigators to conduct surveillance on claimants with significant injury claims. They may photograph or video you in public, looking for any activity that seems to contradict your claimed limitations, carrying groceries, walking a dog, attending a family event.
They also monitor social media closely. A photo from a birthday party, a comment about a weekend outing, a check-in at a park, any of it can be pulled into a claims file and used to argue your injuries aren’t as serious as you say, even when the activity caused significant pain afterward that never made it into a status update. The safest approach during an open claim is to assume anything posted publicly could end up in front of an adjuster or a jury, and to set accounts to private at minimum, ideally posting nothing about the accident, your recovery, or your activities at all until the claim resolves.
Delaying Tactics
Insurance companies profit from delayed payments in more than one way. Common delay tactics include repeated requests for “additional documentation” that was already provided, claims that your file has been transferred to a new adjuster who needs time to get up to speed, scheduling multiple rounds of independent medical examinations, misplacing paperwork you already submitted, and simply taking weeks to respond to routine communications.
These delays serve several purposes at once. Reserves held longer earn the company more, financially stressed claimants facing mounting bills become more willing to accept a low offer just to end the wait, and every month that passes pushes the claim closer to the statute of limitations, a two-year deadline in Illinois under 735 ILCS 5/13-202 for most personal injury claims. Our guide to Illinois personal injury deadlines covers exactly how that clock runs and what shortens it, which matters here because a patient adjuster running out the clock is not being generous, they’re executing a strategy.
Independent Medical Examinations
Insurance companies frequently require claimants to undergo an “independent” medical examination. In practice, IME doctors are hired and paid by the insurance company, often performing dozens or hundreds of these exams a year as a meaningful part of their income. That financial relationship doesn’t automatically make every IME dishonest, but it does mean the doctor has an ongoing business incentive to produce findings the insurer finds useful.
These exams are frequently brief, sometimes ten or fifteen minutes, followed by a lengthy written report questioning the severity of your injuries, attributing your symptoms to a pre-existing condition, or concluding you’ve reached maximum medical improvement well ahead of what your own treating physicians believe. Bringing a witness when permitted, keeping your own notes about what actually happened during the exam, and having your attorney review the resulting report against your actual medical records are all reasonable ways to blunt the effect of an unfavorable IME.
Disputing Medical Treatment
Adjusters often challenge the necessity or reasonableness of medical care directly. Common arguments include that treatment was excessive, that physical therapy went on too long, that a recommended surgery wasn’t actually necessary, that you should have used a lower-cost provider, or that gaps in your treatment schedule suggest you weren’t seriously hurt in the first place.
That last point deserves particular attention, because it’s one of the easiest arguments for an adjuster to make and one of the easiest for a claimant to accidentally hand them. A missed follow-up appointment because of work conflicts, a gap between finishing physical therapy and returning for a flare-up, none of it necessarily means the injury wasn’t real, but it reads that way in a claims file unless it’s explained. Keeping appointments and documenting the reason for any unavoidable gap closes off this argument before it starts.
Why Adjusters Ask So Much About What You Were Doing
A significant share of adjuster questioning, in recorded statements, in casual follow-up calls, in the questions embedded in a medical authorization form, is aimed at building a comparative fault argument. Illinois follows a modified comparative negligence rule under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116: your compensation gets reduced by your own percentage of fault, and if you’re found more than 50% responsible, you recover nothing at all. Every admission, however small, that an adjuster can attach to you moves that percentage in their favor.
The math is direct. A $100,000 claim reduced by 20% fault pays $80,000. Push that number to 35%, and it drops to $65,000. Push it past 50%, and the claim is worth zero regardless of how serious the injuries are. This is precisely why a recorded statement question like “were you looking at anything else before impact” or “how fast do you think you were going” isn’t idle curiosity, it’s an attempt to build the fault percentage the company will use to justify a smaller check. Our detailed breakdown of how Illinois comparative fault works walks through the full mechanics, including how fault gets divided among multiple defendants.
Illinois Bad Faith Insurance Law
Illinois law under 215 ILCS 5/155 provides a remedy when an insurer’s conduct is “vexatious and unreasonable.” Courts applying this statute can award the full amount of the claim, attorney’s fees and costs, statutory penalties up to $60,000, and interest on payments that were unreasonably delayed. Vexatious and unreasonable conduct generally includes denying a valid claim without a reasonable basis, failing to conduct any real investigation before denying or lowballing a claim, and making settlement offers with no rational connection to the actual damages involved.
A related but distinct provision, Illinois’ Unfair Claims Settlement Practices rules under 215 ILCS 5/154.6, sets out specific practices the Illinois Department of Insurance treats as improper claims handling, things like failing to acknowledge claim communications within a reasonable time, failing to adopt reasonable standards for prompt investigation, or not attempting a fair settlement once liability has become reasonably clear. These provisions exist because the legislature recognized what most claimants eventually discover on their own: without some accountability mechanism, there is very little to stop an insurer from simply grinding a claim down through delay and lowball offers.
Medical Liens Add Another Layer of Pressure
If your health insurer, a hospital, or a treating provider has a lien against your eventual settlement under Illinois’ Health Care Services Lien Act, 770 ILCS 23, that lien has to be resolved out of whatever you recover, typically before you see a dollar of it. Adjusters are aware of this and sometimes use it strategically, delaying a settlement while liens accrue interest or additional charges, or using the existence of multiple liens to argue your “real” net recovery from a higher offer wouldn’t be much different from a lower one. It usually would be. Understanding what liens exist against your claim, and negotiating them down where possible, is a separate piece of the process from negotiating with the insurer, and it’s worth handling deliberately rather than letting it get lost in the broader back and forth.
Multi-Insurer and Rideshare Claims Bring Their Own Games
When more than one insurance company is involved, a multi-car crash, a rideshare pickup, a commercial delivery vehicle, the tactics multiply. Each insurer has an incentive to argue that another company’s policy should pay first. Rideshare claims add a specific wrinkle under the Transportation Network Providers Act, 625 ILCS 57: which insurance tier applies, the driver’s personal policy, the rideshare company’s contingent coverage, or its much larger commercial policy, depends on exactly what the driver was doing at the moment of the crash: offline, waiting for a match, en route to a pickup, or actively transporting a passenger. Adjusters on both sides of a multi-policy claim sometimes each take the position that the other company’s coverage applies first, leaving an unrepresented claimant caught in the middle while two companies argue over which of them has to pay.
How to Protect Yourself
Document everything. Keep copies of all correspondence, note the date, time, and substance of every phone call, and save any written communication from the adjuster rather than relying on memory later.
Don’t sign anything without review. Medical authorizations, releases, and settlement documents should all go through an attorney before you sign, not after. A broad medical authorization in particular can let an insurer pull records going back years, looking for anything they can attribute your current symptoms to instead of the accident.
Be careful with what you say. Anything communicated to an adjuster, in writing or on a call, can end up in the claims file and get used against you later. Stick to basic, verifiable facts and avoid speculating about things you don’t actually know, like your own speed or exactly how the other driver was positioned.
Follow medical advice consistently. Attend every appointment and follow through on recommended treatment. Gaps in care become ammunition for the “you weren’t really hurt” argument regardless of the actual reason for the gap.
Get an attorney involved early. Personal injury attorneys deal with these tactics on nearly every claim they handle and know how to counter them without giving the adjuster anything useful.
What to Say, and Not Say, on the First Call
A safe response to an early adjuster call is something close to: “I’m still receiving medical care and gathering records. I’ll provide documentation once I’ve reviewed everything, and please direct any further communication to me in writing.” That keeps the door open without committing to anything.
Avoid guessing about your speed or the sequence of events if you’re not certain, avoid admitting even partial fault, avoid minimizing your pain out of politeness, and avoid agreeing to a recorded statement on the spot just because the adjuster asked casually. None of those responses help your claim, and all of them can end up quoted back to you later.
Chicago Context: Why Adjusters Push Harder Here
Dense Chicago traffic produces a steady stream of multi-vehicle crashes, disputed fault, and conflicting witness accounts, and adjusters use those gray areas to push blame onto injured drivers whenever they can, particularly in rear-end collisions on the expressways, left-turn crashes at busy intersections, and multi-car pileups where several drivers each have their own version of what happened. The earlier evidence gets locked down, dashcam footage, traffic camera video, witness contact information, the less room an adjuster has to reshape the story in their favor. Footage from city cameras and many private businesses gets overwritten within days to a few weeks, which makes early documentation a genuine race against time, not just good practice.
Common Mistakes That Hurt Your Claim
A handful of avoidable missteps show up again and again in claims that end up settling for less than they should. Giving a recorded statement while still shaken and not thinking clearly locks in phrasing that can’t be walked back later. Posting about the crash or your injuries on social media before the claim resolves creates evidence an adjuster didn’t have to work for. Skipping follow-up medical appointments, even for reasons that have nothing to do with the injury, gets read as a sign the injury wasn’t serious. And signing a broad medical authorization without limiting its scope hands the insurer years of unrelated medical history to mine for alternative explanations.
Quick Adjuster Call Checklist
- Confirm the caller’s name, company, and claim number before saying anything substantive.
- Decline recorded statements until you’ve gotten advice on how to handle them.
- Ask that further requests be put in writing.
- Do not discuss fault percentages or guess about speed or distance.
- Write down the date, time, and general content of the call immediately afterward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to talk to the other driver’s insurance company at all?
You don’t have to give a recorded statement or extensive account to the at-fault driver’s insurer. Basic factual information may be appropriate, but detailed statements about fault or injury severity are best handled with an attorney’s guidance.
What if I already gave a recorded statement before realizing the risks?
It’s not necessarily fatal to your claim. An attorney reviewing what was actually said can often identify what needs to be clarified or contextualized rather than treating the statement as the final word on what happened.
Why does the adjuster keep asking for more documentation?
Sometimes it’s a genuine gap in the file. Often, especially when the same documents get requested more than once, it’s a delay tactic. Responding promptly while keeping your own copies protects you either way.
Can an insurance company really deny a claim just to see if I’ll accept a lower amount later?
This happens more often than most people expect. An initial denial or lowball offer isn’t necessarily the company’s final position, it’s frequently an opening move, which is one reason a denial shouldn’t be treated as the end of the conversation.
Does it matter which insurance company is involved, or do they all use the same tactics?
The specific tactics and how aggressively they’re applied vary by company and even by individual adjuster, but the underlying incentive, minimizing payout, is the same across the industry. Assume some version of these tactics will show up regardless of which company you’re dealing with.
How do I know if an offer is actually fair?
A fair offer accounts for all your medical expenses, including anticipated future treatment, lost income, and non-economic damages like pain and suffering, not just the bills you’ve accumulated so far. Without a full picture of your likely long-term costs, it’s difficult to evaluate an offer accurately on your own.
Disclaimer: This article provides general information and is not legal advice.
Insurance companies have teams of adjusters, investigators, and attorneys working to minimize your claim. You deserve someone fighting equally hard on your side. At Phillips Law Offices, our Chicago personal injury attorneys have decades of experience countering insurance company tactics and recovering fair compensation for injured clients. Call (312) 346-4262 or contact us today for a free consultation.
