When you are involved in a car accident or injured in some other way, you will naturally want to seek compensation from the person who wronged you. What you won’t be aware of necessarily, is that their team of insurance adjusters will be in touch with you as soon as you start the claims process. This can be daunting, and there are lots of tricks in the book that make it incredibly difficult to navigate the entire situation. Here at What’s My Case Worth, we know everything that insurance companies are capable of doing to deny claims, and this is vital information to take on board. Read on for more on this topic.
Independent Medical Investigations
After you become the victim of a car crash, you will attend the hospital to have your injuries assessed and be generally checked over by a medical professional. When it comes to making your insurance claim against the person who is at fault, this will be crucial evidence. It demonstrates not just the nature of the injuries that you sustained but also the extent of physical damage they caused as well. For example, if you have experienced a traumatic brain injury, there are bound to be a whole array of medical consequences as a direct result of this occurrence. These will be well documented and kept under review as you move through your healing journey.
What the Insurance Company Will Do
The investigating insurance company will often request an independent medical review of your injuries. This is also known as an IME, but the thing you need to know from our top personal injury attorneys is that this is rarely an impartial process. These medical professionals are hired directly by the insurance company and tend to be working in their best interests. They are assuming that you don’t know how to handle the legal process, but with a personal injury accident lawyer on your team, this could not be further from the truth! While it sometimes comes to pass that a judge demands an IME to take place, you do not have to go through this for a simple insurance claim.
Requests to View Medical Data
Another thing that insurance claims companies may request is open access to your medical records. You are not obligated to agree to this. In fact, all of your medical data is protected by law and you have the right to privacy in this area should you choose to execute it. The insurance company wants to see your entire medical history so that they can use bits and pieces of information to put together a case against you. They may argue that a past medical appointment undermines the current claim, and therefore negates your entire request.
Why Your Privacy Matters
You should know that your privacy is of the utmost importance here. You never know what the insurance company could use against you, even if it is something completely unrelated to the current situation. Anything within your medical history could put your ongoing insurance claim at risk of being denied, and this is why it is never advisable to open yourself up to this level of scrutiny.
Contact You
This is the oldest trick in the book, and sadly lots of people fall for it. When an insurance company receives a claim, they will always, without a shadow of a doubt, be in touch with you fairly instantly after the fact. What this means for you is that when you get that phone call, you should either not answer or make it very clear, in no uncertain terms, that you will not discuss the insurance claim without your attorney present. This tactic is used to almost trick people into saying the wrong thing and accepting some degree of liability. As soon as you do this, your claim is denied. This is obviously less than ideal, but it is oh so easy to make it happen. Protect yourself here by never speaking directly to the insurance claims company without your personal injury accident lawyer either present or on the other line.
Acting Immoraly
There is a lot of scope for what acting immorally means, but in this instance, What’s My Case Worth is talking directly about a misrepresentation of the facts within your policy. The company may say that the things you are claiming for, financially speaking, are not a part of your coverage. We will be able to take a legal approach to the terms of your contract and figure out whether or not your company is both telling the truth and acting lawfully.
What Happens When Your Claim is Denied
If your insurance claim is denied, you are not left with many options at all. Not only will it put you at risk financially, because medical bills can soon add up, but you will also be vulnerable in terms of how well you are able to heal. If the insurance people are denying your claim, it is important to get in touch with us as soon as possible to discuss what happens next.
Appealing the Decision
It is easy for top personal injury attorneys to take a look at your claim and figure out why it was denied. This will then open up the door for starting the appeals process. It is vital that you don’t give up, even if you are feeling anxious and depressed about the outcome. Appealing the decision will be a long process for some people, and a really fast experience for others. It all depends on the finer details, and this is something that our team can get started on exploring straight away.
What’s My Case Worth understands that insurance claims are a hard thing to navigate alone. We are here for you and all of your needs, and want you to know that we always work hard for our clients where justice is needed. You can get in touch today to figure out exactly how we are able to help you, and there is no time like the present.
Let the attorneys at What’s My Case Worth fight for you today.
