Your Nationwide Injury Lawsuit Questions Answered
If you were injured in an accident caused by a driver or property owner with Nationwide insurance, it can be challenging to know whether to sue the party or Nationwide, how to negotiate with Nationwide, and what compensation you can get.
Multiple steps are involved in a Nationwide injury lawsuit, varying based on circumstances. There are several ways to pursue compensation, but having an attorney can make all of them easier, with a higher chance of getting the right settlement.
Here are answers to some of the frequent questions we see about Nationwide Insurance:
As of December 2022, the CEO of Nationwide is Kirt Walker. He started working at Nationwide in 1986, assuming multiple leadership positions before he was appointed the COO. He took the position of CEO in 2019.
The headquarters for Nationwide Insurance is located in Columbus, Ohio.
According to a JD Power survey, Nationwide has a low score of 787 out of 1000, where the average score is 880. In some parts of the United States, they are ranked as the lowest car insurance provider because of poor customer satisfaction.
If you’re a driver insured by Nationwide, the company says they make it easy to file auto insurance claims. You have the option to submit your claim:
If you don’t have Nationwide as your insurance provider and you were injured by someone who does, you won’t have an online account or an agent you can reach out to and should typically go through your own insurance company. They will typically contact Nationwide on your behalf to handle all of this.
Other than that, it can be difficult to get the right escalation when you need it. And if you feel that Nationwide is stonewalling you or that your insurance isn’t standing up for you, that can be where legal options come into play.
Nationwide gives many options for getting an insurance claim, but they don’t have any internal instructions on how to challenge a nationwide insurance payout, whether you are a client or a third party. At best, you can try to escalate your claim or consider alternative legal options.
Yes, under certain circumstances, you can sue Nationwide. If you are injured in an accident on someone’s property or place of business or in a car, and the responsible party has Nationwide as their insurer, you can sue Nationwide for compensation.
If you suffer a personal injury, you can sue the person responsible for compensation. But how do you know who to sue? Nationwide or the driver?
Sometimes there are multiple parties involved. If, for example, you are injured at somebody’s house, but the house is owned by their parents or someone else, you wouldn’t sue the person who invited you but rather the property owner. Similarly, if you are in a car accident, but the driver is using a company vehicle for company business, you wouldn’t sue the driver; instead, you would sue the company.
If you don’t like how Nationwide is responding to a claim, you have a few other options for making a complaint.
There may be class action lawsuits against Nationwide.
Nationwide settled a lengthy class action lawsuit that started in New York in 1999 and continued through 2007. This class action lawsuit stipulated that Nationwide adjusted the amount of money they paid for repair estimates using a betterment charge and denied customers the payout they deserved for claims.
Nationwide has also faced lawsuits over policy sales tactics.
If you are eligible for a class action lawsuit, the court will typically attempt to notify you through the mail with instructions on how to take part.
To pursue a personal injury lawsuit against Nationwide:
This depends entirely on your injuries and the type of accident. In a Nationwide lawsuit, you can claim damages for things like:
Not all of these apply to every case. Minor injuries like lacerations and sprains might come with minor medical bills and no loss of income, but a broken arm could come with both. Permanent injuries could necessitate long-term medical care and loss of companionship or mental suffering.
An attorney can help you determine how much you may be able to seek in damages with Nationwide.
In any personal injury claim, you can receive one or two types of compensation:
Compensatory is supposed to cover the direct costs associated with your injury. Punitive is supposed to punish the other party.
Compensatory bills require evidence like loss of income, medical bills, and repairs. An attorney can help you collect the right invoices, receipts, or bills to substantiate this part of your damages.
In some cases, you can request punitive damages, but usually, a judge will award it based on the situation.
There are state limits to both types of damages, which also correlate to your case type. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average winnings for tort cases—which include personal injury claims—in 2005 was $31,000, but for car accidents, it was $16,000.
Insurance companies like Nationwide typically calculate a settlement offer based on a variety of factors. Nationwide will look at factors like you’re proven costs. Proven costs include:
Second, they will look at your injuries. The amount of compensation you get is directly correlated to the severity of your injuries because compensation for injuries is usually between one and five times the total cost of your medical bills. So, if you have severe injuries with substantial medical bills, your compensation for those injuries will be higher than for someone with one or two medical bills and minor injuries.
If you think Nationwide is offering an unfair settlement for your injuries, it may be time to pull in an attorney.
Insurance companies like Nationwide typically calculate things like pain and suffering based on various factors related to your injuries. Pain and suffering is another factor directly correlated to the severity of your injuries. The pain and suffering you experience will naturally be much higher with broken bones, lacerations across the face that caused disfigurement, or spinal cord injuries compared to lower pain and suffering experiences for some minor lacerations on the arms and a hairline fracture.
Nationwide will look at the evidence you have for your medical bills to figure out how those injuries have impacted your daily life. Still, it can sometimes feel like Nationwide is ignoring the pain and suffering you have endured or the mental distress your injuries have caused. In these cases, an attorney might help you get more compensation than what Nationwide is offering.
If you are seeking a settlement over an accident with a driver insured by Nationwide it could take months, or longer, to reach a settlement, depending on your situation. A good lawyer who has worked with cases against Nationwide before may be able to give you a reasonable estimate.
On their website, Nationwide states that it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months or longer, depending on the complexity of your case. A big part of the case is whether Nationwide is willing to negotiate, what evidence you have, and how smoothly communication goes.
This looks a little different for each situation. When you are injured in a personal injury situation, you must gather evidence and send a demand letter to Nationwide. This is something an attorney can help you with. That letter must explain what happened, what injuries you have, how the injuries were the result of another party’s negligence, and how Nationwide is the insurance provider for that other party.
Sometimes these negotiations go on for a while, with Nationwide sending counter offers or requesting follow-up information, or you submitting follow-up information as new injuries present themselves, or you have new receipts and invoices. An attorney can negotiate back and forth to ensure you get the compensation you deserve. An attorney can also give you legal advice if Nationwide offers a lower settlement.
Sometimes Nationwide might respond to your demand letter stating that they won’t pay out at all, and if that happens, your next step is to sue them in court with a personal injury lawsuit. This is something your attorney can help you with.
The best way to maximize your insurance settlement with Nationwide is to have sufficient evidence. You have to be able to prove that Nationwide is responsible as the insurance provider for the negligent party.
Just because you were in a car accident doesn’t mean you have grounds for compensation. You have to prove that you were in that car accident and sustained injuries because the other driver was negligent. The same thing goes for any other type of injury, including workplace injuries and medical malpractice.
Generally, having a lawyer will often result in a stronger and more successful case with maximized settlements.
How long a Nationwide lawsuit lasts depends on many factors:
According to a study by the National Center for State Courts, personal injury cases average 16 months.
No, you don’t usually require a lawyer. You can legally represent yourself, but having a lawyer will often result in a stronger and more successful case.
If you are unsatisfied with the way Nationwide has responded or the compensation they are offering, an attorney can help you maximize that compensation to ensure you get coverage for things like vehicle damage or medical expenses. Similarly, if you live in a fault state, an attorney can help you prove that you were less at fault over the other party.
A lawyer does a lot in a Nationwide injury lawsuit, like communication, paperwork, and legal representation.
Firstly, a lawyer will make sure you have grounds for a case. Slipping and falling at a workplace doesn’t necessarily mean your employer was negligent, but slipping and falling on a dangerous set of cables that your employer knowingly left out in the middle of the walkway might.
Once a lawyer determines that you have grounds for a case, they’ll help you gather evidence to substantiate that case. That evidence can include things like incident reports from the local police, following up for witness statements, having a photographer photograph the scene of the accident, or finding camera footage from nearby security cameras.
With proper evidence, a lawyer will draft your demand letter and send it to Nationwide. From there, they will negotiate on your behalf for compensation with Nationwide. This process could take weeks, months, or years. If both parties cannot agree upon a property settlement, an attorney will represent you in court should the case go to trial.
Most personal injury attorneys work with a contingency agreement, so if you want to file a Nationwide injury lawsuit, they will not require payment upfront but instead will take a percentage of your settlement. Usually, this is between 30% and 40% of the total amount you are awarded.
So if a lawyer helps you get that much more—or win a settlement from Nationwide when you wouldn’t have got one—then having one can be a good investment.
You can find a good lawyer for a nationwide injury lawsuit by getting recommendations from companies or people you trust. Get recommendations from trustworthy businesses that have professional relationships with personal injury attorneys. If you know someone who has been involved in a personal injury lawsuit, see if they had a good experience.
Meet with some of the selections you are considering using free consultations. The consultation is a great chance for an attorney to make sure you have a case and for you to see if it’s someone you want to work with. Your personal injury claim could take months or years, which is why it’s so important that you trust the person you plan to work with.
Ask about payment structure, how they’ll keep you in the loop as your claim progresses, and their level of experience with cases like yours. Personal injury is a very large legal category, so it might be best to find a lawyer with experience working directly with Nationwide or working with the types of injuries you have.
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