Shared Sentiments Among Consumers Who Hire Attorneys in the Auto Claims Process

Quick hits on what’s driving bodily injury claimants toward attorneys

Mitigating Attorney Involvement in Auto ClaimsContents

Discover how LexisNexis Risk Solutions helps insurers connect faster and streamline the claims process.

In 2024, LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions conducted a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers to inquire whether they leveraged an attorney for their bodily injury auto claim.

The study highlighted that 70% percent of respondents hired attorneys, but of that group, 15% never intended to seek counsel. Within this ebook that group will be referred to as Attorney Unplanned. When asked what drove them to seek counsel, a majority of the Attorney Unplanned group said it was due to a “series of events.”

In this ebook we’ll highlight key events.

Respondents of the study were:

Age 21–70
Drivers of a vehicle for personal use
Involved in decisions about auto insurance
Involved in an auto accident/crash that:
- Occurred within the past two years
- Involved injuries
- Resulted in a bodily injury claim submitted to the other driver’s insurance company that was not denied

Among the Attorney Unplanned respondents, 61% say that “the way things were going” with the third-party carrier prompted them to hire an attorney.

The Attorney Unplanned group report that a series of events led them to this decision.

The second highest breaking point, at 29%, was that the insurance company did not want to pay or pay enough.

After interacting with the third-party carrier, the Attorney Unplanned respondents reported the following:

Making contact first is critical to the claims experience. Uncover how you can enable quicker contact.

Claimants who hadn't planned to get an attorney, but did, are more likely to report repeating ‘their story’ to the carrier

7 out of 10

say they are asked to relay the details of their accident and situation more than two times during the claims process. This rate is 78% higher than the rest of the survey population.

Concern that the other driver’s insurance company ‘didn’t have their best interest at heart’ has a sizeable impact on claimants' decisions to involve an attorney.