How to Tighten an Insurance Adjuster’s Sphincter…..

My colleague Geoff Sharp found this gem of an article entitled “How to Build a Mediation Presentation That Will Make an Insurance Adjuster’s Sphincter Tighten.” Written by Bob Gerchen, a jury consultant and author, he explains that

When an insurance adjuster is listening to and watching a mediation presentation by a plaintiff, she is asking herself, “What is my downside here? What is my risk level?” And she is constantly weighing the risks of going to trial versus the costs of settling with money that the insurance company would prefer to hold on to for a little longer.

As a former insurance defense lawyer, I can attest to the fact that most defense lawyers and insurance adjusters tend to downgrade the “emotional impact” that Plaintiff’s lawyers see as all-important. They are impressed, however, by the things Mr. Gechen points out – bad witnesses, evidence of incompetence or worse, indifference to the risk that caused the plaintiff’s injury. Jurors are far more likely to increase their award for those reasons than because the plaintiff counseled deaf-blind children for a living and in his spare time fostered Michael Vick’s dogs.