Insurance companies attract new policyholders through compassionate commercials, appealing internet ads, and glossy brochures, They promise caring insurance adjusters, fast action, and full compensation for clients after a car accident. However, the reality that injury victims experience after a car accident is often very different than what was promised.
Fault-based insurance states and the District of Columbia incentivize auto insurance companies to use predictable tactics to dispute, delay, and deny claims. Experienced car accident attorneys protect clients against foreseeable tactics used against them by insurance adjusters who prioritize company profits over payouts to clients. It’s essential for a car accident victim to recognize these insurance company strategies and avoid the potential pitfalls.
Reaching Out Quickly With A Settlement Offer
An insurance adjuster’s job is to protect company profits by finding ways to minimize a payout or deny a claim. One of the earliest and most common insurance adjuster tactics after a car accident is to reach out to an injury victim with a quick settlement offer. Often, this offer comes before the injury victim knows the full extent of their damages, like the amount of future medical care required for their recovery, how much work they’ll miss, and—critically—whether or not they’ll be left with partial or total disability.
Signing a settlement offer requires waiving the right to a lawsuit against the party at fault for the accident. A fast, early settlement offer is almost always for far less than the true value of an injury victim’s claim.
Delaying Methods Used by Insurance Adjusters After Car Accidents
There are time limits for most legal actions, including for insurance claims and lawsuits after a car accident. In Washington D.C., Injured car accident victims must decide how to move forward on a claim within 60 days of the accident, choosing between filing against an-fault driver’s insurance or their own Personal Injury Protection (PIP) policy. Under the district’s contributory fault system, an insurance company for an at-fault driver may deny a claim if they determine that the injury victim contributed to the accident by as little as one percent. Insurance adjusters may do the following to delay progress on a claim:
- Delay returning calls
- Postpone negotiation meetings
- Ask for redundant or unnecessary paperwork
- Prolong their investigation
- Impede an accident victim’s attorney’s investigation
- Lose paperwork
- Change adjusters
Unnecessary delays benefit insurance companies in multiple ways, including wearing down claimants so they’re more likely to accept low settlement offers. It also allows the company to continue earning interest on the amount of an injury victim’s payout while it remains in the company’s account.
Calling on A Recorded Line
Insurance companies commonly call claimants and state that they are calling on a recorded line. By continuing to speak to the insurance adjuster, the car accident victim grants permission for them to record conversations.
Despite their compassionate tones, insurance adjusters who ask about your injuries, treatment, and the details of the accident do so to find ways to minimize the amount they have to pay out on your claim. Often, insurance adjusters use a victim’s recorded remarks against them later, even when they’re taken out of context.
Asking for a Full Medical Authorization
Insurance adjusters often ask victims to grant them medical authorization to view their injury records. What many car accident victims don’t realize is that they’re signing a blanket authorization that allows the insurance adjuster to review their entire medical history. Adjusters do this to seek previous injuries or pre-existing conditions they can then claim are the cause of the victim’s pain and other symptoms.
Disputing Valid Claims
Insurance adjusters commonly dispute aspects of an injury victim’s claim. For instance, they may deny that a doctor’s recommended treatment isn’t necessary for the injury. They may claim that the injury victim cannot be as injured as they claim due to a lack of serious damage to their vehicle. This is common in whiplash cases which commonly occur in rear-end collisions with little property damage to a car.
Assigning an Undue Portion of Fault to the Car Accident Victim
Insurance companies have an incentive to assign fault to injury victims with large insurance claims. Many states operate under modified comparison negligence insurance laws which allow car accident victims to recover a portion of their damages even if they contributed to the cause of the accident as long as they aren’t more than 50% at fault. Under these laws, they recover their compensation minus their percentage of fault.
A handful of states have pure comparison negligence laws allowing injury victims to recover compensation minus their percentage of fault even if they are more than 50% at fault—theoretically, even if they are 99% at fault they can still recover one percent of their damages. However, Washington D.C. operates under a contributory negligence law that prohibits injury victims from recovering compensation from an at-fault party’s insurance if they are even one percent at fault. Insurance adjusters in Washington D.C. are highly motivated to find injury victims partly at fault for an accident to protect their profits. In these cases, an injury victim with added Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance may file a claim against their own policy, but may encounter many of the above tactics from their insurance provider.
Following You on Social Media to “Catch” You
In the past, insurance adjusters would sometimes spy on claimants to catch them engaged in activities that showed they weren’t as injured as they claimed. For instance, snapping photos of an injury victim out jogging when they’ve claimed they are bedridden. However, today’s insurance adjusters don’t have to follow an injury victim around with a camera when they can follow them on social media. Sometimes insurance adjusters use an injury victim’s posts against them. If a car accident victim posts something like, “I was in a car accident today, but thankfully, I’m okay,” the insurance adjuster can use that as evidence that the claimant wasn’t injured in the accident. They may also use photos against the victim, even if they were simply smiling through their pain at a child’s soccer game.
How Can a Car Accident Attorney Help My Case?
No one should take on a car accident claim without experienced representation. Insurance companies have profits as their motives and their insurance adjusters do not have your best interests at heart. Before you accept a fast settlement, speak on a recorded line, or sign a medical authorization, call the car accident lawyers in Washington D.C. at Lightfoot Law, PLLC, for a consultation so we can take fast action to protect your rights and best interests.