The 5 Ways NOT to Wreck Your Auto Wreck Case

    The events following a motor vehicle accident are crucial when it comes to preserving your rights.  It is important to be aware of some critical issues that, if not dealt with properly, can ruin a claim you have with the insurance company that insures the at-fault driver.  Below are 5 important factors that you need to consider.  Failure to understand and abide by the below advice could potentially ruin your claim.

1.         Do NOT give a recorded statement to the at fault driver's insurance company.  I get it.  You’re upset or even angry that someone injured you and wrecked your car.  Now it’s time to give them a piece of your mind.  You want to tell the insurance company how the accident was caused by this idiot.  When the insurance company for the negligent party calls you, sure, you’ll tell them how it is.  DON’T.  Please don’t.

            The insurance companies know how the game is played and they are very skilled at it.  What the insurance adjuster wants to do is lock you into a story that is not favorable to you.  The adjuster will ask you questions in a manner which will play your story to your disadvantage.  Simply stated, without an attorney you will not have the benefit being prepared for all the tactics used and why everything you say will be manipulated to hurt your claim.  The other issue is that the statement will be given to the attorney for the defendant (the person who is insured by the insurance company) to be used against you in the lawsuit if you don't say the EXACT same thing in a deposition that you said years earlier in the recorded statement.

2.         Immediately seek medical attention.  It is very important to get medical attention IMMEDIATELY.  Delays in treatment leave the insurance companies and their attorneys salivating.  Their position is that if you wait to seek medical attention, you are not really injured.  Nevermind that you were in shock and the pain wasn’t unbearable until that evening.  Or that you had to go to work to earn your pay so that you can pay your bills or risk being fired.  The longer you wait the worse it is.  Don't be that person that thinks "it'll get better" or "it'll go away".  If it doesn't, BOTH you and your claim will be hurting. 

3.         Follow your treatment plan.  We are all busy.  Work, kids, relationships, whatever you have going on in your life makes you busy.  I get it.  When I worked for the insurance companies, there would be days when I didn't see my little girl.  I'd go to work in the morning before she got up and would get home after she went to bed.  My wife was ready to kill me (more so than usual).   I realized I had to stop that lifestyle.  What you need to realize is that if you do not follow your treatment plan, the insurance company will say you couldn't have been injured.  They actually create charts where they count and log EVERY day you went for therapy.  If there are gaps in the days you went for treatment or treatment they deem "inconsistent" they use it as an excuse to devalue your claim.

4.         Don’t sign anything from the insurance company for the at fault driver.  "We just need to confirm your medical treatment".  Wrong.  The insurance company wants to investigate every time that you ever went to a doctor before the accident in an effort to try to tell you that your claim isn't worth much.  They will get records that have absolutely nothing to do with the injury you suffered in the accident.  I once saw an insurance defense attorney argue in Court about why the insurance company should be able to subpoena records of the plaintiff's gynecologist when the plaintiff had a neck injury.  Ridiculous.  The defense attorney, who was a woman, even argued to the female judge (the plaintiff's lawyer was a man) that "we as women know that we will tell our gynecologist things we won't tell other doctors".  I was not quite sure why the plaintiff would say something about a neck injury to her gynecologist that she wouldn't tell her orthopedist.  The judge apparently didn't understand this argument either. She denied the defense attorneys request.  Good ruling.  The point here is that the insurance company's representatives will act as if they want to investigate your claim in an effort to settle.  Don't trust them.

5.         Be honest with your lawyer about your prior accidents, injuries and/or medical conditions.  It is a MAJOR mistake if you fail to be forthcoming about your medical conditions and medical history.  If you're TRYING to ruin your claim, this is the way to do it.  The insurance companies have resources to research this information.  Whenever you make a claim for medical coverage through your own insurance company or a claim against another insurance company's negligent driver, the information is logged into a database.  When you make a claim, what is the first thing the insurance company does?  They pull your information from this database.  If you are dishonest with your attorney about your prior accidents and injuries, it is much harder or even impossible to settle your case.  The attorney loses all credibility, as well as looks incompetent, when arguing on why the insurance company should pay when the attorney does not know that 2 weeks prior to the accident you had a similar injury and didn't disclose it.