Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

The honest answer to this question is that it would not be competent for an attorney to suggest a course of action without additional facts. The relationship between yourself, your insurance company and the other side is a triangle. You have some unity of interest with the insurance company against the other side and some potential conflict in interests. Responses to policy limits demands, before or after disclosure of policy limits, is probably the area that most commonly leads to conflicts of interest. The insurance company cannot disclose the limits to the other side (before litigation and discovery requirements change the rules of the communications process) without your consent. The claims adjuster can't recommend whether or not you should grant consent as doing would be giving legal advice and if the adjuster is not a lawyer, that would be illegal conduct on the insurance company's part, so he or she is right to refuse to suggest your choice. This is something where consulting with an attorney is probably a good idea for you as, depending upon the likely amount of damages, policy limits amounts, other potential coverage issues, number of possible defendants, liability issues and many other possible factors, either choice could be the better one in the best pursuit of your interests in this matter.

Your insurance person is being lazy. S/he should call the company's legal department, get an answer and give it to you. That is what you should suggest that insurance person do.

Normally I recommend disclosure of the policy limits because if you don't then the attorney representing the injured person or persons would have no choice but to sue you so that he or she can get the policy limit information through formal legal discovery (interrogatories). The attorney for the injured party or parties would have no way to competently recommend to his/her client(s) to settle not knowing the policy limits. For example, say that an injured party's damages are clearly $20,000 and your liability policy limit is only $15,000 per person (a minimum policy). How can that lawyer recommend to his/her client to accept $15,000 (your policy limit) when the case is worth at least $20,000. That injured party might accept the $15,000 upon proof of the $15,000 policy limit but would never accept $15,000 without something in writing confirming that such is the limit. Therefore, by refusing to disclose the policy limit you are guaranteeing that you will be sued and that you will have to answer interrogatories disclosing the policy limits. You can avoid all that by disclosing the policy limits as soon as the injured party presents reasonable evidence that the damages are more than your policy limits.