When you’ve been injured in an accident in San Antonio, dealing with insurance companies can feel like navigating a maze blindfolded. Their friendly demeanor often disappears the moment you decide to file a lawsuit. At Ryan Orsatti Law, we’ve witnessed firsthand how insurance companies transform their approach once litigation begins.
Understanding these tactical shifts can help you prepare for what lies ahead and protect your right to fair compensation. Let’s explore how the insurance playbook changes once you’ve filed a lawsuit in San Antonio.
The Pre-Lawsuit Façade
Before diving into litigation tactics, it’s important to understand the insurance company’s initial approach. Prior to filing a lawsuit, many adjusters present themselves as helpful allies in your recovery process. They might:
- Reach out frequently, expressing concern about your wellbeing
- Offer quick, but inadequate settlement amounts
- Discourage you from consulting with an attorney
- Attempt to obtain recorded statements that could later be used against you
- Request unnecessary medical authorizations to dig through your entire medical history
These pre-lawsuit tactics are designed to resolve claims quickly and inexpensively, often at your expense. Insurance companies know that unrepresented claimants typically accept settlements worth far less than what they deserve.
Tactical Shift #1: Communication Blackout
Once you file a lawsuit, one of the most immediate changes you’ll notice is a communication shift. That previously chatty insurance adjuster who called regularly to “check on you” suddenly becomes unreachable.
All communication now must go through their legal department or the defense attorney assigned to your case. This isn’t coincidental – it’s strategic. By funneling all communications through attorneys, the insurance company creates:
- Additional layers of bureaucracy
- Delays in response time
- A more formal, intimidating process for the plaintiff
- Protection against making inadvertent admissions
Defense attorneys typically have stringent communication protocols, and responses that once took days might now take weeks. This strategy serves to test your patience and resolve, hoping that delays might pressure you into accepting a lower settlement.
Tactical Shift #2: Intensified Investigation
Pre-lawsuit, insurance companies conduct basic investigations into your claim. Post-lawsuit, they launch comprehensive investigations with significantly more resources. In San Antonio, this often includes:
- Hiring private investigators to conduct surveillance
- Deeply scrutinizing your social media accounts
- Interviewing your neighbors, coworkers, and acquaintances
- Obtaining all medical records, not just those related to your current injury
- Investigating your background for any prior claims or lawsuits
These intensified investigations serve a dual purpose: gathering evidence that might contradict your claims and finding personal information that could be used to discredit you.
For example, if you’ve claimed severe back pain limits your activities, but investigators photograph you gardening or carrying groceries, they’ll use these images to suggest you’ve exaggerated your injuries. Even innocent social media posts showing you at a family gathering might be presented out of context to challenge your credibility.
Tactical Shift #3: Aggressive Use of Discovery
The discovery phase of litigation reveals another dramatic shift in insurance company tactics. Through formal legal processes, they’ll demand:
- Extensive written interrogatories requiring detailed answers about your claim
- Requests for production of documents related to the accident and your injuries
- Medical examinations by their selected doctors (often called Defense Medical Examinations or DMEs)
- Depositions where you’ll be questioned under oath by defense attorneys
This aggressive discovery approach serves multiple purposes. First, it creates administrative burdens for you and your attorney. Second, it seeks to uncover any inconsistencies in your testimony. Third, it’s designed to wear you down emotionally.
In San Antonio courts, we’ve observed insurance defense attorneys becoming increasingly aggressive during depositions. They may ask the same question multiple ways hoping for slightly different answers they can exploit later. They might question your character, suggest you’re exaggerating your pain, or imply you’re motivated purely by financial gain.
Tactical Shift #4: Deploying Medical “Experts”
Perhaps one of the most frustrating insurance tactics is their use of defense medical experts. After you file a lawsuit, insurance companies typically require you to undergo an examination by their selected physician.
These aren’t independent medical evaluations – they’re defense medical examinations conducted by doctors who frequently work for insurance companies. In San Antonio, we see the same small group of physicians repeatedly hired by insurers to conduct these examinations.
These doctors often:
- Minimize the extent of your injuries
- Attribute your symptoms to pre-existing conditions
- Suggest your treatment was unnecessary or excessive
- Claim you’ve reached maximum medical improvement earlier than your treating physicians believe
- Recommend fewer restrictions on your activities than your doctors advise
What makes this tactic particularly effective is that these opinions come from medical professionals with impressive credentials. Juries may not realize these doctors derive significant income from insurance companies and rarely find in favor of plaintiffs.
Tactical Shift #5: Delay, Delay, Delay
Before a lawsuit, insurance companies often push for quick settlements. After litigation begins, they frequently embrace delay tactics, such as:
- Filing numerous motions requiring court hearings
- Requesting extensions for response deadlines
- Scheduling depositions months in advance
- Making last-minute cancellations of scheduled proceedings
- Opposing reasonable requests for expedited trial settings
This delay strategy serves several purposes. First, they know that financial pressures mount on injured plaintiffs who may be unable to work or facing mounting medical bills. Second, memories fade and evidence becomes harder to preserve over time. Third, some plaintiffs simply give up due to the emotional toll of prolonged litigation.
In San Antonio courts, defense attorneys often take full advantage of crowded court dockets to extend the timeline even further. A case that might reasonably resolve in 12-18 months can easily stretch to 2-3 years through strategic delays.
Tactical Shift #6: Challenging Causation and Damages
Once litigation begins, insurance companies almost invariably attack the causal connection between the accident and your injuries. They might argue:
- Your injuries existed before the accident
- Your injuries resulted from a different incident
- Your injuries aren’t as severe as claimed
- Your medical treatment was excessive or unnecessary
- Your lost wages or diminished earning capacity are exaggerated
This is particularly common in cases involving less visible injuries like back pain, soft tissue damage, or traumatic brain injuries. Without obvious external signs, insurance companies aggressively dispute the severity and cause of these conditions.
In San Antonio, we’ve seen cases where insurance companies hire biomechanical engineers to testify that the physical forces in a collision weren’t sufficient to cause the claimed injuries. They might also bring in financial experts to challenge your lost income calculations or vocational experts to suggest you could work in capacities you know your injuries prevent.
Tactical Shift #7: Litigation Risk Assessment Changes
One of the most significant but least visible shifts involves how insurance companies assess risk. Before litigation, they evaluate your claim based on:
- The clarity of liability
- Your documented medical expenses
- Your potential non-economic damages (pain and suffering)
- Your representation (unrepresented claimants typically receive lower offers)
Once you file a lawsuit, their risk assessment becomes more complex, factoring in:
- The added costs of litigation (attorney fees, expert witnesses, etc.)
- The specific judge assigned to your case
- The venue where the trial would occur (some San Antonio area courts are known to be more plaintiff or defense-friendly)
- Your attorney’s trial experience and success record
- Your personal presentation and likeability as a potential witness
This reassessment sometimes works in your favor. If the insurance company determines you have a compelling case, a sympathetic personal story, a favorable court venue, and a successful attorney, their settlement offers may improve significantly as trial approaches.
Tactical Shift #8: Strategic Settlement Offers
Insurance companies become much more strategic about when and how they make settlement offers after litigation begins. They often employ one of these approaches:
- The early lowball offer: Made shortly after filing to test your resolve
- The eve-of-deposition offer: Presented just before you’re scheduled to give testimony
- The post-discovery offer: Extended after they’ve gathered all possible information about your claim
- The courthouse steps offer: Made literally as the trial is about to begin
Each offer is carefully calculated based on the information they’ve gathered and their assessment of your willingness to proceed. The timing is never random – it’s designed to catch you at moments of maximum stress or uncertainty.
In the San Antonio legal community, we’ve observed that significant settlement offers often come at what we call “inflection points” in litigation – just before or after major stages in the case where new information emerges or significant costs are about to be incurred.
How to Counter These Tactics with a San Antonio Personal Injury Attorney
Understanding these tactical shifts is your first line of defense. Here’s how an experienced San Antonio personal injury attorney helps counter these insurance company strategies:
- Documentation mastery: Maintaining comprehensive records of all medical treatments, expenses, and how injuries affect your daily life
- Strategic discovery: Conducting our own thorough discovery to build your case while efficiently responding to defense requests
- Medical expert relationships: Working with respected medical professionals who can counter insurance company doctors
- Litigation momentum: Keeping your case moving forward despite delay attempts
- Settlement valuation: Accurately calculating the true value of your claim, including future impacts
- Trial preparation: Building your case as if trial is certain, which often leads to better settlement offers
The most effective counter to insurance company tactics is thorough preparation and the willingness to take your case to trial if necessary. Insurance companies closely track attorney reputations – they know which attorneys routinely settle cases and which ones are prepared to go the distance for their clients.
The Ryan Orsatti Law Difference
At Ryan Orsatti Law, we’ve spent years studying insurance company tactics in San Antonio courtrooms. We understand not just their general playbook, but how specific insurance companies operate in our local courts. This knowledge allows us to anticipate their moves and prepare strategic countermeasures for our clients.
Our approach combines meticulous case preparation with aggressive advocacy. We document everything, prepare for every contingency, and maintain a trial-ready stance that forces insurance companies to take your claim seriously from day one.
If you’ve been injured in San Antonio and are facing these insurance tactics, know that you don’t have to navigate this complex process alone. An experienced personal injury attorney can level the playing field and help ensure you receive the compensation you deserve.
Conclusion
Filing a lawsuit dramatically changes how insurance companies handle your claim. The friendly adjuster is replaced by defense attorneys, investigations intensify, and the process becomes more adversarial. By understanding these tactical shifts, you can better prepare for the challenges ahead and improve your chances of obtaining fair compensation.
Remember that insurance companies handle thousands of claims and have refined their approach over decades. Having an experienced San Antonio personal injury attorney by your side ensures you have an advocate who understands these tactics and knows how to counter them effectively.
If you’re facing these insurance company tactics after filing a lawsuit in San Antonio, contact Ryan Orsatti Law for a free consultation. We’ll evaluate your case, explain the challenges specific to your situation, and develop a strategy to help you achieve the best possible outcome.
This blog post is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. Every case is unique, and outcomes depend on the specific facts and circumstances involved. If you have questions about your personal injury claim, please consult with an attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.