At some point in an injury claim, someone has to say what the case is worth and why. That is the demand letter, and it does more work than any other single document in the process.
It is also where unrepresented people most often undercut themselves, usually by sending it too early.
Timing Beats Tone
The most consequential decision about a demand letter is when to send it.
Send it while you are still treating, and you are describing an injury whose course you do not yet know. If you need another procedure six months later, that cost is not in the number you already anchored to, and you generally do not get to revisit it after a release is signed.
The right moment is usually when your medical picture is understood well enough to describe the full arc, including what is still ahead. Waiting is uncomfortable when bills are arriving, which is exactly why people rush it.
It Sets the Ceiling
Negotiations move downward from the demand. Whatever you put in that letter becomes the top of the range, so a figure chosen without understanding the components of a claim tends to leave money on the table permanently.
That is not an argument for an absurd number, which destroys credibility and invites an adjuster to stop taking the file seriously. It is an argument for a supported one.
What Actually Belongs In It
- A clear factual account of how the collision happened and why the other party is responsible.
- Liability support, including the report, witness information, and physical evidence.
- The complete medical narrative: treatment, diagnoses, providers, and the course of recovery.
- Documented expenses, itemized rather than summarized.
- Lost income, supported by employer documentation rather than estimated.
- Future costs, including anticipated care and reduced earning capacity where applicable.
- The human impact, described concretely rather than dramatically.
- A specific demand and a reasonable response deadline.
What Quietly Weakens One
Adjusters read these constantly, and certain things register immediately as signs of an unprepared claimant:
- Anger. It reads as leverage you do not have.
- Adjectives instead of records. Excruciating pain with no documentation is discounted.
- Round numbers with no components. Where did the figure come from?
- Overstating anything. One exaggeration undermines the credibility of everything else.
- Omitting prior injuries that the medical records will disclose anyway, which is worse than addressing them directly.
- Threatening to sue without meaning it. They can tell.
The most persuasive demand letters read as calm, organized, and thoroughly documented. That tone signals a claim that will be difficult to defend cheaply, which is what actually moves numbers.
The Adjuster Has Obligations Too
Montana regulates insurer conduct in claim handling through its unfair claim settlement practices provisions, including MCA § 33-18-201. Those rules address things like failing to act reasonably promptly and refusing to pay without conducting a reasonable investigation.
Knowing that framework exists changes how you interpret an adjuster who goes silent for six weeks or makes an offer with no explanation of its basis. It is not simply how it goes.
Should You Write It Yourself?
You can, and for a minor claim with a clean liability picture and modest completed treatment, some people do fine.
Where it goes wrong is on claims involving ongoing symptoms, disputed fault, or any future cost component, because those are the elements most easily undervalued by someone who has not seen how they are typically priced. The letter cannot be unsent, and the release cannot be unsigned.
If you would like someone to look at it before you send it, that is a reasonable conversation to have. Our insurance claims page explains how we work with adjusters, and our guide to how a Montana settlement works puts the demand letter in context.