Getting Proper Compensation from an Insurance Company
April 5, 2022
The insurance industry is one of the largest business sectors in the world. These companies spend major money on advertising to appeal to consumers. They have Geckos that claim they are there to protect you, Super Bowl winning quarterbacks claiming that the insurance company they represent protects you better then their football teammates and catchy jingles that state they are “on your side”. The insurance industry goes out of their way to create an expectation that they will quickly handle accident claims and fairly compensate those injured in an accident caused by their insured.
Guess what? Those injured in accidents quickly realize that those commercials may not be so accurate. The claims process is anything but fast and getting proper compensation for your injuries is not quite as easy as that cute gecko claims it to be. Insurance companies, just like most businesses, are motivated by dollars and profit. Paying out accident victims is a loss so obviously, an insurance company is going to try and minimize that loss as much as possible. Insurance companies will use numerous tactics to try and avoid paying proper compensation to accident victims. It is for this reason why it is so important to retain an accident lawyer. In New York the Law Offices of Spencer M. Fein, P.C. has been helping accident victims in Westchester County including Ossining, Briarcliff Manor, Yonkers and White Plains among other towns and cities get the best possible compensation for their injuries. As you will see below the tactics of Insurance Companies make it imperative for you to have proper representation.
How Insurance Companies try to Limit Damages
Although insurance companies will likely accept liability when their insured is at fault for an accident they will certainly try and limit what they have to compensate. You may ask how can they do that? Well, one of the main ways is to try and pass part of the fault onto one or more other parties. In the State of New York if they can pass part of the blame to other parties they can limit the percentage of what they feel is proper compensation for the injuries. One of the easiest and most used tactics occurs before an accident victim retains an attorney. Shortly after one is injured in an accident the adjuster from the insurance company that represents the wrongdoing party will contact the injured. They will seem like they are kind and there to help you and will ask you all these questions that seem to be out of genuine concern. They will likely even ask if they can tape the conversation so they can make sure to have all the important information correctly. The issue is the way they are asking these questions. They will be leading and almost certainly asked in a way to get a response that will try and pin part of the liability for the accident on someone else. They know once you obtain a lawyer that they will lose the opportunity to ask and frame these questions to their advantage. Lawyers such as those at the Law Offices of Spencer M. Fein, P.C. make sure accident victims in Westchester, Rockland, Orange and other counties of New York are protected from such leading questions that try to pin the blame on another party.
Recorded Statements can cause Major Headaches
As mentioned above many times a representative from an insurance company will ask if they have permission to record your conversation or if you would be willing to give a recorded statement. They try to get these statements before an injured person hires an attorney. Why? Because they know that once an attorney is involved such attorney will almost certainly reject such a request. These statements are a common trick used by insurance companies to ask leading questions to box an accident victim into the insurance companies narrative to prevent proper compensation. These statements will be used to try to blame part of the fault upon the injured party. Once these statements are out there an attorney can not really argue against the leading statements. This very often will limit the amount of recovery. It is why we stress the importance of retaining an attorney as soon as possible if you sustain injuries due to another’s fault. At the Law Offices of Spencer M. Fein, P.C. we represent individuals throughout Westchester, Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and other areas of New York to get the proper compensation they deserve.
Don’t Believe the Insurance Company is Looking Out For You
Another common practice is for an insurance company to ask you to sign a release so they can see your medical records pertaining to the treatment you received after the accident. They make it seem like they are there to help you and they want to see the extent of your injuries so they can properly compensate you. Very often this is one of the first requests of an insurance company. They want to get your records before an attorney is involved. They do this so they can pick apart your medical treatment.
Their representatives will look through the records and try to establish either the injury is not so serious or that you have a prior injury that is really what is causing your pain. They will try to get you to think you really don’t have a strong claim. They want to try and accomplish this before you retain an attorney. Know an attorney is going to eventually release your medical records to the insurance company but not before they have a chance to study them and know all of the arguments that the insurance company may try to use to limit compensation. Think of it like poker, you are not going to show an opposing player your cards before you have had a chance to see if you have a winning hand. You want to be able to control the claim process to benefit maximum recovery. Retaining an accident attorney, like the Law Offices of Spencer M. Fein, P.C., will help make sure the insurance company does not try to take advantage of someone that may not understand the claims process.
Call and Retain an Attorney for Best Results
If you take one thing from all of this information it is this: AN INSURANCE COMPANY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. Insurance Companies are not in the business of just handing out their money. They are in the business of making money. To this end, they will do anything in their power to limit the compensation they pay out to accident victims. Their tactics are to limit and avoid paying fair compensation. As you can see above they implore tactics that to a layperson may seem helpful and caring in nature, but in actuality, they are done to limit future fair compensatory damages. The only real way for an accident victim to avoid these pitfalls is to retain an attorney who has experience in dealing with insurance companies. Such accident attorneys will make sure they control the claims process and that the insurance company does not.
For years, The Law Offices of Spencer M. Fein, P.C., has been helping accident victims receive fair and proper compensation from insurance companies. Our clients who are from all over the state including but not limited to Mt. Kisco, Ossining, Peekskill, Yonkers, Briarcliff Manor, White Plains and Mt. Vernon, have consistently given testimonials on how happy they have been with our results. Call today and someone will be happy to review your potential case for free. At the Law Offices of Spencer M. Fein, P.C. we represent individuals harmed due to the negligence of others.