What should I do if the insurance company offers me a check right away?

The first thing you should do is contact an attorney because the attorney can decide whether or not that’s a fair and reasonable settlement. Probably it’s not because the motive of the insurance company is to provide you with the least amount of money as quickly as possible, and you’re signing away your rights, which rights you may not even know you have, and you may not even know at time what your medical prognosis is. You don’t want to receive money without knowing what your entire rights are. If, for example, you were to receive a $10,000 check and six months later, you needed $100,000 surgery, and you did not seek the advice of an attorney, you have signed your rights away simply because the insurance company was pressing you to take a check.