This is where you get Ripped Off. The insurance companies don’t want you to know your rights and to what you are entitled when you make a personal injury claim following an accident. The following are secrets the insurance companies do not want you to know:
1. You DO have the right to an attorney and should at least consult with one:
Attorneys who specialize in personal injury and auto accident law generally do not charge an injured person in an initial conference. Generally, you can meet with an attorney for one hour and learn what rights you have as a result of the injury that you suffered. You can then make your own decision as to whether you wish to retain an attorney to represent you on your claim. As I mentioned, there is generally no charge for this conference and you should find that out up front from the attorney when you call the office to schedule such a consultation.
2. You are not in “GOOD HANDS” if you trust the insurance company:
Despite the fact that many insurers will encourage you not to retain an attorney, and they will tell you that they intend to treat you as one of their insureds and that you are in good hands, this is a myth. The insurance companies have one and only one interest when they contact you early after your accident. They are interested in getting your claim settled as quickly and cheaply as possible. Providing you a “fair” settlement is not first and foremost in their mind. They want to save the shareholders of their big insurance company as much money as they can from lost profits.
3. The auto body repair shop the insurance company refers you to has a sweetheart deal with the insurer:
Frequently, insurance companies will refer you to one or more body shops to have estimates performed on the damage to your vehicle. What they do not tell you is that with many of these body shops, there are sweetheart deals by which the body shops use cheaper and inferior parts to repair your vehicle and only repair the obvious damage as opposed to the hidden damage. As a result of these repairs, you might have continuing problems with your car which will frustrate you and may never get fully repaired. It will also result in a lower cost of repair which the insurance company will then throw back at you and say how badly could you have been injured if it didn’t cost much money to repair your vehicle.
4. In addition to getting your vehicle repaired, you are also entitled to recover the decreased fair market value of your car:
Insurance companies will talk to you about repairing the property damage to your vehicle. They will never initiate conversation with you regarding the fact that in addition to the repairs to your vehicle, if, as a result of the accident, your vehicle has lost fair market value, you are also entitled to a sum of money to compensate you for that loss of fair market value. This is something that even many attorneys are not aware of and you have to be certain to inquire into this when you consult with an attorney.
5. Insurance companies often do not tell you about all benefits to which you are entitled:
Whether it be your insurance company or that of the responsible party, you might be told that you are entitled to have your medical bills paid and they may offer to pay you for your loss of earnings or out-of-pocket expenses. But, the insurance company will not go into any detail as to what other damages you are entitled to receive compensation for. Some of these damages I have listed in the prior section of this report. Further, if you are a pedestrian or bicyclist and are injured by a person driving a motor vehicle, you are considered an additional insured under that policy, even if the accident was not that person’s fault.
6. It is not in your best interest to settle your claim quickly:
The insurance adjuster will be interested in settling your claim as quickly and cheaply as possible. To accomplish that, the adjuster might even offer to pay the medical bills that you have incurred to date and continue to pay reasonable medical bills for another six months. However, early in a case, you have no way of knowing just how seriously injured you are and just how much treatment you might need and for how long. If you enter into a settlement of that nature, once that six months passes, you are out of luck. Further, what do you do if you submit additional medical bills to the insurance company within that six month period of time, and the insurance company tells you that they don’t believe those bills are reasonable or related to the accident? You have lost all leverage in dealing with the insurance company and may not even be in a position where you can sue them to force them to pay for those medical bills. It will certainly be difficult for you to find an attorney to represent you at that point in time.
7. People truly can be injured even with minimal property damage to their automobile:
If you are injured in an accident where the vehicles did not sustain much property damage, the insurance adjuster will tell you that they would not expect you to be very injured, nor to have incurred much in the way of medical expenses given the minimal amount of damage to your vehicle. They will attempt to intimidate you into not seeking health care and not getting adequate treatment for those injuries. In reality, studies show that people very definitely can be injured in what are called low impact automobile accidents. In fact, thousands of people sustain such injuries and the visible damage to the automobile itself is irrelevant to the injuries that can be sustained by the occupants of the automobile.
8. So called “independent medical examiners” where the insurance company might send you to be examined are NOT “independent”:
Whether it be your insurance company or the other person’s insurance company, at some point in time they may wish to send you to a doctor for an examination. They will tell you that this is an “IME,” which is supposed to stand for “Independent Medical Examination.” In reality, these doctors are NOT independent. They get paid thousands upon thousands of dollars every year by the insurance industry to write boiler plate reports that are designed to cut off all benefits to the injured person. Although there are times that you cannot avoid attending these examinations, there are things you can do to prepare for them and to attempt to minimize the damage that could be done to your claim by such examinations. You’ll never learn these things from the insurance company. You will have to be advised by a private attorney who specializes in personal injury and auto accident claims.
9. If they can’t settle early, delay, delay, delay:
If the insurance company cannot get the claim settled early, then they switch tactics to delay matters as long as possible. It is not unusual to have your telephone calls not returned and, when you do finally talk to an adjuster, find out that the adjuster has been changed. In many instances, an adjuster may be changed three or four times within a matter of a couple months. The intent here is to get the injured person as confused and frustrated as possible so that hopefully he or she will decide they can’t waste anymore time on trying to deal with this company and will just go away.
These are just some inside secrets or tips that the insurance companies don’t want you to know about your personal injury or property damage claims.
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