The insurance companies are not on your side. Do not fall for the gimmicks. Do not fall for the commercials. If you have been injured in an accident, do not fall for insurance company tricks. You see, insurance companies are businesses and they are all about their bottom line. They will protect their money any way they can. This means they will look for any way to undermine your claim or flat out deny your claim. To avoid allowing them to do so, avoid these common insurance company tricks.
Common Insurance Company Tricks
In many cases, insurance companies will try to make a quick settlement offer to a personal injury victim. This is because they want to settle things before a lawyer gets involved. They know that lawyers are likely to recognize this initial settlement offer as a low ball offer that should not be accepted. Insurance companies also know that, right after an accident, an injury victim may be particularly vulnerable and overwhelmed. A fast settlement may be appealing to many in this situation. Do not fall for it! These initial offers are usually way below a claim’s value. You would be doing yourself a serious disservice to accept it, in most cases.
On the other hand, insurance companies are also known to drag out claims. They will delay processing a claim in any way they can. This is because, so often, accident victims become overwhelmed in the financial sense. Many may be out of work due to their injuries. With limited income coming in, and the sight of medical bills and other expenses piling up, many accident victims will be more eager to get the insurance company compensation they have been waiting for. The insurance companies will make these people wait so that they will jump at any chance to settle, which also means the injured party is more likely to accept a lower settlement offer.
Insurance companies will also look for any reason to deny or undermine your claim. A common trick insurance companies like to pull is claiming that your injuries were preexisting and were not caused by the accident. To be clear, even people with preexisting medical conditions are entitled to be compensated for the harm suffered in an accident. This means that the exacerbation of preexisting injuries should be compensated. This means that even if the injured party was more likely to sustain severe injuries than someone in better health, he or she is still entitled to be compensated for the harm suffered as a result of the accident. This is known as the “eggshell” rule. You take the plaintiff as you find them. It also means it is important for your treating doctors to be clear about new injuries and pain you are suffering from that you did not suffer from before the accident. Be sure to talk to your doctors about what you have been experiencing since the accident so that they can note the differences in your condition since the accident.
Another commonly employed trick perpetrated by insurance companies is the exploitation of social media. Social media provides a wealth of information to the world about our lives. Insurance companies will conduct deep dives into your social media world to look for ways they can undermine your claim. Did you just post pictures from a trip you took? The insurance company may use this to show that you were not actually that injured by the accident. Did you post about the accident coming as a surprise to you? The insurance company may claim that this shows that you were not paying attention to where you were going and, thus, you share in the fault of causing the accident.
Florida Personal Injury
At VCM Law Group, we are well versed in the games insurance companies play. We stand up to insurance companies and fight for our clients. Contact us today.