Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboy89
I guess what I was getting at was; Is there more business for lawyers if insurance companies are making less money?
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I don't think the two things are related. What drives the lawyer's business is the number of accidents people are getting into.
What drives the ins. co. profits are the market returns on their investments, the number of premiums they collect and the amount of the premiums and the cost of paying out on the policies they carry. If for whatever reason the ins. co. profits go down the only way it would affect lawyers is if the ins. co. tightened the screws and refused to pay any claims at anywhere near the value. This would create a higher demand for lawyers.
Also, the ins. co. makes an offer knowing there is a value, to both parties, to getting the claim completed, avoiding lawyers and court. So what might be a "fair" settlement before lawyers are involved may increase exponentially after. In other words the early settlement is less reflecting a premium for getting it over with. In my opinion if the ins. co. were to make their initial offers a little more generous they would improve their settlement rates to the benefits of everyon.