pawn stars uses a negotiating style calleda unilateral or confrontational negotiating style. this is a type of negotiatingstyle you want to use when you are faced with an adversary or an opponent,so to speak, who you're trying to negotiate one transaction with.you wouldn't want to use this in a business setting, where you have an ongoingrelationship with another person, for example a vendor, who's goingto be selling you things, but in a situation where you're just trying to makeone transaction and then you'll be finished, this is a great negotiatingstyle. now in a personal injury, or an automobileaccident lawsuit or claim,
that's exactly you have. generally speaking,you only have one claim against one insurance company. if you're unluckyenough and you get in another automobile accident when you mighthave two or even more claims, but generally not against the same insurancecompany. this is the type of negotiating style that will get you the bestresults. let me bring reemphasize what they said in that video.number 1, never take the first offer. i've seen numerous cases where insurancecases offer a low-ball settlement first time around. never take that.insurance companies are always willing to negotiate. i've never hada case yet where
they give their best offer the first timeout. second, be willing to walk away. now thismay not make a lot of sense if you think about it in a context of a personalinjury or an automobile accident case. how do you walk away from that?you have no choice, you must deal with that insurance company. the onlyway to get a settlement is with that insurance company. let me tell you, thewalk away is probably most powerful negotiating strategy that can beused. if you've ever been down on a beach in mexico or a south american country,and you're trying to negotiate the purchase of something from avendor on a beach, the walk away
is the way to get the best price, same thingwith car dealerships. there's a ton of examples i can give you wherethe walk away is powerful, and so how do you apply that in automobileaccident case when you're dealing with an insurance company? obviously,you can't completely walk away from the transaction, but let me tellyou the walk away that does work, and that is you say, "i'm sorry, i appreciateyour efforts in negotiating this, but i'm not happy with theoffer that you've made, and therefore, i'm taking this to the next level."so you walk away. now, what's the next level? generally speaking,that's filing a claim. once
the claim is filed, you have to negotiateagain, if you're still not happy with the offer, you walk away once more. we'regoing to take this through the discovery phase. after the discovery phaseis finished, you try to negotiate it again. if you're happy with thesettlement, great, take it. if you're not happy with the settlement, walkaway one more time. we're taking this to trial. it's interesting to me, in my experience asan attorney, it's been interesting to watch and see how powerfulthis negotiating strategy is with insurance companies. insurance companies willincrease their offer
significantly, to clients who are willingto walk away. in other words, they're willing to take it to the next step,whether it's filing a lawsuit, going to the discovery phase, or even goingto trial. if you're willing to do that, you'll get significantly more foryour money and significantly more money in your settlement offer becauseyou are willing to walk away. now, if you're not willing to walk away, youwill get a settlement, but the settlement will be much smaller. it's sometimeseasier opposing forces that clients have to deal with, and that is, well,if i walk away, it will take more time to settle my case, and that is true.
some attorneys compete by saying, we can geta settlement extremely quickly, and that is true. any attorney canget a quick settlement on a case. in fact, you don't need an attorneyto get a quick settlement. you can get a quick settlement on your own. anattorney can give you some benefit in that situation, because the attorneymay be able to speak the insurance adjustor's language, but the attorneywill not get a great settlement, because a fast settlement is completelyinconsistent with the walk away, and so if you really want to geta good settlement for your case, you need an attorney to willing to dowalk away, that's willing to
take it to the next step. one thing to ask your attorney, when you'rehiring an attorney in an automobile accident case, is have you takenan automobile accident case to a jury trial? not to an arbitration. insurancecompanies, i don't think, really respect arbitration. they're not afraidof arbitration. they will not make great offers for arbitration. thequestion is, have you taken it to a jury trial. that, a jury trial is thewalk away the insurance companies respect. if you're willing to takeit to trial in front of a jury, the insurance company will make a muchbetter offer than under any
other circumstances. good luck with that,and i'll try to follow up and answer some other questions in the future.thanks for your time.