If you've been injured by a driver who is insured by Nationwide Insurance, here's what you need to know.

Nationwide Insurance has an interesting business model in that the company is a private company owned by its policy-holders. That coupled with its "Nationwide is on your side" slogan give the company a friendly, "looking out for the little guy" reputation. Slogans and organization aside, Nationwide is still a multi-billion dollar company who behaves like other behemoths if you have been injured by one of their drivers. They will do their best to ensure that your payout is as small as legally allowable.

To minimize you potential payout on your damages, Nationwide, like other insurance companies runs a claims system. The company requires every accident victim to go through a claims process that is set up and run by Nationwide. While it may shock most people, there is absolutely nothing about claims processes anywhere in the law. They are strictly private, extra-judicial entities. Put more simply, the claims process at Nationwide, like any other car insurance company, is not designed to pay you, but to provide Nationwide with the information it needs to contest your claim. Claims adjusters are well-trained skilled professionals who know how to make people admit things they would otherwise not like to admit.

Over the years Grossman Law Offices has dealt with Nationwide countless times on behalf of our clients. We know the the skill of their claims adjusters from experience. If you have been injured in an accident, in order to recover the maximum value of your claim, it is imperative that you involve an experienced accident attorney as early in the process as possible. Not doing so could greatly undermine your legitimate claim.

Questions answered on this page:

• Who is Nationwide Insurance?
• How does Nationwide attempt to minimize insurance payouts?
• Why is an experienced car accident attorney crucial for pursuing your claims?
• What if my claim is small, do I still need an attorney?

Nationwide Insurance: An Overview

Nationwide is a gargantuan company. According to the company's 2014 financial statement, Nationwide took in $25.3 billion in insurance premiums. Not all of this revenue was from car insurance, but with over 7.2 million Nationwide car insurance policies written, a fair portion of Nationwide's revenue is from car insurance. Based upon the number of policies written, Nationwide is the 8th largest auto insurer in the United States, with roughly 4% of the total auto insurance market.

What makes Nationwide even more formidable is that like many insurance companies, it's total assets vastly exceed the amount taken in annually in premiums. Nationwide lists total assets at $195.2 billion. That kind of money purchases a lot of influence and a lot of lawyers.

Beyond the revenue, Nationwide's total assets just don't sit around in a bank somewhere gathering zero interest, instead they are invested throughout the economy to generate more revenue for the company, outside of premiums. This is why, while Nationwide's revenue after expenses generally is somewhere around $1 billion per year, its total assets have grown by an average of $12 billion annually since 2010.

Dealing with Nationwide

While many may look at a company with almost $200 billion in assets and think, "They have the money to pay my relatively small claim, this shouldn't be too hard," the truth is that Nationwide Insurance, like many other insurers uses their money to retain a horde of defense attorneys to contest any claims that Nationwide deems too high. That is how a company like Nationwide Insurance can take in $25.3 billion in premiums, while only paying out $15.5 billion dollars in claims.

Even though it is owned by its policy holders, Nationwide Insurance is not a friendly company to try and deal with. Like other insurance companies they use the claims process as a means to discover information about you that you would rather not reveal. For instance, if an injury occurred before an auto accident, then Nationwide would not be responsible for paying out on the damages. That can lead to questions from insurance adjusters like, "Have you ever awoken with a sore back in the morning?" Most people are going to answer yes to that question, because back pain is pretty common. If a driver suffers a back injury in a car accident and has the previous exchange with an insurance adjuster after the accident, then that driver just gave ammunition to Nationwide Insurance to dispute the claim. After all, the driver said they have had sore backs in the past, so who's to say that they didn't have a pre-existing back injury. Armed with such information, they'll use that to offer a low-ball settlement or deny responsibility for the claim altogether.

Scenarios like the one just described are not uncommon when dealing with Nationwide Insurance. Armed with a bit of information and a phalanx of attorneys, they know that most people do not have the resources or training to fight back against them. Given the sheer number of policies they have written, they have billions of dollars in incentive to employ these tactics. The only way to hold them accountable is to have an experienced car accident attorney of your own, like those at Grossman Law Offices.

How Grossman Law Offices can help you maximize your claim.

While giant car insurance companies like Nationwide Insurance are big and formidable, they are not unbeatable. In fact, with an attorney who has over 25 years litigating car accident cases and helping motorists in Texas, and throughout the United States, the attorneys have Grossman Law Offices have represented literally thousands of injured motorists. Why do people choose Grossman Law Offices? We get results for our clients by conducting professional investigations to gather as much evidence as possible and use that evidence to hold the insurance company accountable for what they owe our clients under the law.

While many people are rightly skeptical of car accident injury attorneys, Grossman Law Offices is different from many other firms. We take no money up front and we charge nothing unless we win. Furthermore, if you have been fortunate and are being treated fairly by Nationwide, or any other insurance company, we will tell you so and advise you against hiring a lawyer. If we cannot add value to your case and you're better off resolving the matter on your own, we'll tell you that.

Grossman Law Offices is in business to hold insurance companies accountable when they are trying to squeeze and bully everyday people who merely had the misfortune to be injured by a driver with a Nationwide Insurance policy. For motorists with Nationwide, we know that Nationwide is on their side. If you're an injured motorist, who is on your side?

For a free consultation, call Grossman Law Offices at (855) 326-0000. The call and consultation are absolutely free and we answer the phone 24/7.

If you have been injure in a car accident, you may be interested in the following related articles:

• An Overview of Car Accident Negligence Arguments
• What is Gross Negligence?
• How Do Claims Adjusters Work?