Before You Speak to the Insurance Company, Learn About Your Rights

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Anchorage, Alaska personal injury lawyer Michael Schneider has a great story about a client who lost a personal injury case because the client spoke to the insurance adjuster, trusted the adjuster, and apparently followed the adjuster’s bad advice, which ended up hurting the claim.

Mr. Schneider doesn’t have specifics but only says that at trial the client couldn’t explain to the jury why the client did and didn’t do certain things because to do so would violate a rule of evidence that prohibits the parties from mentioning that the defendant has insurance. (Just speculation, but he suspects the plaintiff wanted to tell the jury that the reason he didn’t immediately seek treatment is because the insurance adjuster told him he didn’t need to go see a doctor because the pain goes away after a few days, etc)

Sadly, this all could have been prevented if the personal injury plaintiff had spent a little time and done a little research about the process of making a personal injury claim.

In this day and age of the internet, plaintiffs have access to all types of resources that can help them protect their claim or even pursue their claim on their own. For example, we offer a free report “The Five Deadly Sins that can Wreck Your Car Accident Claim” which you can order without any obligation.

But I’m not alone. There are literally hundreds of websites offering free advice about all aspects of personal injury claims. If an injured person just takes a few minutes, they can learn a lot of information that will minimize the amount of damage that they do to their own claim.

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Progressive Spying on Car Wreck Victims

In August, the Atlanta Journal Constitution broke a story about
Progressive Insurance Company’s use of private investigators in a
shocking manner. The story, which is unfortunately no longer available
online, stated as follows:

When a new couple arrived at Southside Christian Fellowship
in August 2005, members welcomed them with open arms. Soon, the new
couple talked their way into private group support sessions…During
the private talks, church members confessed abortions, sexual
orientation issues, drug addictions and other dark secrets. No one knew
the couple wasn’t actually interested in joining the church. Instead,
they were private investigators hoping two church members…would spill
something they could use to discredit the pair in an ongoing lawsuit
over a traffic accident. The private eyes even tape-recorded the
sessions.

Immediately after the story broke, the Progressive CEO offered an apology, calling the situation “appalling.”

But Progressive is now singing a different tune. In a lawsuit filed
by the personal injury victims, Progressive is now asserting that the
conduct was “reasonable.”

It will be interesting to watch and see how this story plays out.

Technorati Tags: insurance company spying, progressive

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Tort Reform Myths

Here’s an awesome new video about the myths of tort reform perpetuated by the insurance industry!