Mistake #2
Believing that the insurance company is your
friend and will treat you fairly
We can’t tell you how many stories we’ve heard over the years from frustrated people who realized they accepted a very unfair settlement offer from the insurance company. Their explanations often have a familiar theme: “The adjuster seemed so nice. He told me they would take care of me.” “She was so pleasant and seemed concerned about my injuries. I thought they were on my side.”
These individuals failed to realize that insurance adjusters are trained to take advantage of the lack of knowledge most people have about their legal rights and the value of their claims. The adjuster assigned to your claim may seem like a nice person; but never forget that their primary job is to protect the insurance company. The way they do this is either by finding a way not to pay you at all or by paying you as little as possible in order to resolve the matter. Their job, their pay and their promotions depend on the extent to which they make money for the insurance company. They are not compensated or rewarded for giving their company’s money to claimants.
Many clients have told us that they believed their own insurance company would take care of them because they had a good relationship with the agent who sold them the policy. What they didn’t understand is that when an injury occurs, the claims department handles the claim—not the agent who sold them the policy. The job of the claims adjuster is to minimize or avoid the obligation to pay you. Adjusters do not care about your relationship with the insurance agent. They don’t care that you’ve been a customer of the insurance company for 25 years and have never had an accident or filed a claim. It doesn’t matter to them that you’ve never been late in paying a premium. Adjusters are instructed to resolve the claim for as little as possible. If they can settle the claim for fifty cents on the dollar, they will not hesitate to do so.
Below are some examples of seemingly kind and helpful gestures from insurance adjusters, which often have a much more self-serving purpose:
· “I want to help you get a rental car. All I need first is a recorded statement from you to process the claim.” An adjuster may, in fact, need some information from you to investigate a claim and make proper payments on the claim (such as providing a rental car to you). However, you are not required to give them a recorded statement, which is later transcribed and often used against you. A simple example of this can be seen at the beginning of a recorded statement, when the adjuster asks the injured person, “How are you doing?” and the person responds, “Fine, thanks.” A normal response for a question that you’re probably asked several times a day, right? However, we’ve seen instances when the insurance company has later questioned whether an individual was really injured in an accident, because apparently the victim was “fine” at the time the recorded statement was taken. A better response to this question would have been, “I’m OK, considering ....” It seems ridiculous, but this is often the type of nonsense that an honest, well-meaning victim can encounter by simply allowing a statement to be recorded.
· “In order to pay your claim, I’ll need your medical bills and records. You’ve got enough on your plate right now—I’m happy to get them for you if you’ll just sign a medical release.” Watch out for an offer like this. We never allow our clients to sign an adjuster’s release for documents or authorization to gather information. These documents are almost always crafted in such a way as to grant the adjuster permission to retrieve virtually every file from your past. This means the adjuster can access every medical record, regardless of whether it has anything to do with your accident. They can then acquire every single one of your school and employment records, personal files and any other piece of written information about you. Your entire life can be scrutinized without restriction. If the adjuster makes such a request, he or she is likely looking for two things:
1. Medical records that show any prior injury to the parts of your body injured in the accident. Insurance companies look for this information so they can argue that the pre-existing condition is to blame for your current symptoms (even if the prior injury happened years ago).
2. Records that can be used to discredit you or put you in a bad light, such as psychological records or medical records that may be embarrassing to you. This information provides the insurance company with leverage, forcing you to show little or no resistance to accepting the company’s proposed settlement offer.
· “Let me give you a piece of friendly advice. Don’t hire a lawyer—they’ll just take the settlement money that’s rightfully yours.” As we noted before, studies show that this statement is completely false—injured people with an attorney receive significantly more than those without legal counsel. In fact, some state legislatures have passed specific laws prohibiting insurance companies from making these types of statements! Despite these laws, however, there are still claims adjusters who discourage people from hiring an attorney. The adjusters know that with an experienced attorney on hand, they will have to pay more for the claim than they originally wanted.