Insurance companies often market themselves as big-hearted organizations, and each year they spend billions of dollars to tell us they have our best interests in mind. The advertising says one thing, but there is another story behind the scenes. The truth is that insurance companies sometimes use unethical practices to avoid paying fair settlements to victims of personal injury. How do they do this? The following are some of the most common unscrupulous strategies they use to add insult to victims of personal injury.
Unethical Contact and Demands
Insurance companies may start immediately attempting to contact a victim after the accident, using manipulative questions and improper contact with the victim. The insurance company may make demands on the victim, which later prove to limit the victim’s ability to receive a fair settlement.
Here are three tactics that an insurance company may employ to gain the upper hand, and, in the end, obstruct the personal injury victim from their legal right to receive a just settlement.
Immediate Contact
After a personal injury accident, a victim is in no condition to make rational decisions, analyze options, or provide thoughtful statements. A victim may be hospitalized, suffering from injuries, or even under sedation. Unfortunately, insurance companies sometimes use these moments to step in and question a personal injury victim and use their answers against them later to reduce settlement amounts offered.
Requesting Full Medical Authorization
An insurance company may request a victim’s full medical history, collecting records that have nothing to do with their current medical condition. Their goal is to scour the victim’s medical records, seeking to discover a medical problem in the victim’s past that would give a cause or reasons to reduce or nullify their obligation to pay a settlement.
Demanding Victim Statements
Another ploy of insurance companies is to ask leading questions in order to prompt victims to admit guilt, or state that their condition is improving.
An important thing to remember is that a victim is never required to give any statement to an insurance company before contacting a personal injury attorney. Statements that are collected by an insurance company may later be used against a victim as the settlement package is being negotiated.
The Blame Game
Insurance companies attempt to gain an edge when discussing the accident with victims. They may try to place total or partial blame on the victim, in order to diminish their responsibility to pay a settlement or to influence the verdict of a trial. It is essential that a victim speak carefully with the insurance company, and never allow an interview to be recorded.
A similar ruse used by insurance companies is to place blame for the accident on every person involved except the person they insure. They may blame the victim, or other drivers, for a car collision, or they may blame slip and fall victims for an accident, saying it was their own carelessness. Look out for unethical blaming strategies, which are used to avoid paying fair compensation to a victim.
Failure to Reveal Insurance Limits
Sometimes a personal injury victim will contact an insurance company to find out if the negligent party has enough coverage for their claim. Insurance companies may blatantly lie, concealing accurate information about the coverage.
If an insurance company contacts a victim by phone after receiving a written request, it is crucial that they give the requested information under oath. Unfortunately, this is necessary because insurance companies often falsify the facts and fail to provide accurate information requested by the victim. A personal injury victim can avoid these tactics by seeking help from an experienced personal injury attorney — an advocate who will make sure the victim’s legal rights are safeguarded.
Postpone and Delay
One of the most common tactics that an insurance company will use is to stall and delay the payment on a claim. Their goal may be to cause frustration, stress, and anxiety for the victim. Actions such as these sometimes result in a victim accepting a lower settlement offer, simply to end the stagnated process. In other cases, an insurance company may know that a victim is riding a deadline to file a lawsuit under the statute of limitations laws.
This block of time, though it appears generous, fills up quickly with the need for independent investigations and the waiting for medical injuries to resolve. When the deadline passes, the victim becomes unable to file a claim in court. Consequently, an insurance company gains complete power over the process and the settlement amount.
Release of Claim
Many insurance companies try to persuade victims to sign a release of claim, which offers a specific compensation amount. Once signed, this seals the claim. It is not uncommon for an insurance company to lead victims astray, telling them it is not final, it is just one step in the process. A victim may be falsely led to believe they may receive more compensation later, as the case unfolds. No matter how an insurance company frames such an offer, a personal injury victim should never sign such a claim unless they are willing to accept that dollar amount as final.
Low Settlement Offers
Because an insurance company knows that a victim is under stress, dealing with the injury, as well as medical bills and lost wages, the company may first offer the victim a ridiculously low settlement. Therefore, it is unwise to accept the first offer from an insurance company.
Contact an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney
If you were the victim of an accident due to someone else’s negligence, an experienced personal injury attorney can help you negotiate with the insurance companies on your behalf, help you build a strong personal injury case, and help you receive the fair settlement to which you are entitled.