Insurance Company Myths

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Myth – Insurance adjusters are always honest with claimants - In the days after a claim is opened, the adjuster’s goal is to find out as much as possible about a claim to find any weakness to exploit. Adjusters can sometimes say something just to see if the claimant will give them what they want or to see how the individual reacts. There have been documented instances of insurance companies using fraudulent means to get a claimant to accept a low settlement offer.

Myth - The insurance companies will make a reasonable offer to settle your claim to avoid having to hire an attorney to defend the case - This is simply not true. The insurance companies see this as nothing more as a cost of doing business. Also, there is an increasing trend towards insurance companies using in-house counsel, meaning that they don’t have to pay attorneys by the hour to represent them. Therefore, these companies are not saving by avoiding a lawsuit.

Myth - There is a set of quotations to estimate the value of the claim - You might have heard that a claim should be worth three times the amount of a medical bill that you incurred from the accident. However, the reality is that this is not true because every case is different. For instance, if you were to break your ribs, there would be little a doctor could do to treat your injuries and your appointment would be sporadic over a number of months. However, your pain and suffering would be great. Every move you make would be agonizing and even breathing would be painful. That case would have relatively low medical bills. On the other hand, if your injury is to your muscles and soft tissue in your neck or back, you would need regular treatment, sometimes on a daily basis, while the injury healed. Your pain and suffering would probably be considerably less than the case of a broken rib, but the bills for treatment would probably be higher.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Sacramento accident lawyer Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a Sacramento accident lawyer, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1215 “K” Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 357-6767

Weinberger Law Firm – Sacramento Accident Attorneys

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Weinberger Law Firm specializes in personal injury law in the Sacramento, CA area. These dedicated attorneys provide professional, aggressive representation of clients who have been injured physically, emotionally and financially as a result of the negligent or reckless conduct of others. Call for a consultation.

Insurance Myths After an Accident

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Myth #1: You must sign every document the adjuster sends you.

You are not required to sign a release of information for the other person’s insurance company. While an adjuster may want to look at your medical and employment records to assess your injuries, they do not have a right to the documents unless a lawsuit has been filed.

 

Myth #2: You have to give the adjuster a record statement.

If a lawsuit hasn’t been filed, you do not have any obligation to give a statement to the other guy’s insurance company, recorded or otherwise. In fact, these often work against you because the adjuster can ask virtually question without objection and the claimant locks him or herself into answers early in the claim. It is important to speak to an attorney before agreeing to a recorded statement. Often an attorney will sit in on a recorded statement to protect your case.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a accident attorney in Folsom Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a accident attorney in Folsom, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 357-6767

Statutes of Limitations

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What is a statute of limitations? It is, quite simply, a limit on the amount of time that you have to file a lawsuit. If you do not file before the expiration of that timeframe, you lose the right to bring any claim or lawsuit, forever. Furthermore, there are no excuses and no exceptions. If the attorneys car breaks down on the way to the courthouse and the case does not get files, that is too bad. The case cannot then be filed.

Errors involving statutes of limitations are responsible for many lawyer malpractice cases in the United States. When a lawyer forgets or waits until the last minute and something goes wrong and he or she does not get the case filed on time, he or she has almost certainly committed malpractice.

Statutes of limitations vary from state to state and from one type of case to another. Common time limits for personal injury cases are two years or three years. In other words, although statutes of limitations range from less than two years to more than three years, two-year and three-year limitations periods are common among the states.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Folsom car accident attorney Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a Folsom car accident attorney, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 357-6767

Economic/Special Damages

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Economic damages or “special damages” as they are also often called, are those types of damages which have clear dollar amount associated with them. The main types of economic damages in personal injury cases are medical bills, lost wages/lost profits, loss of earning capacity and property damage.

The main feature of economic damages which distinguishes them from non- economic damages is that they have a sum certain. In other words, we can point to a medical bill and show how much money was lost. We can point to lost wages and say how much was lost. We can point to a damaged car and show how much it costs to fix or replace it.

Economic damages—such as with loss earning capacity—might not always be easy to calculate approximately how much a person would have earned in their lifetime had they not been disabled by an injury.

Conversely, as we will see, non-economic damages are much harder to value. So, let us look at each of the types of economic damages.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Folsom car accident lawyer Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a Folsom car accident lawyer, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 357-6767

Insurance and Bad Faith Law

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Unfortunately, many states do not have adequate resources to investigate all of these claims; so claimants have to fend for themselves.

In a few states, however, individuals can personally sue insurance companies for violating bad faith laws. In other words, people in these states can sue the insurance companies for committing acts of bad faith during the claims process. These laws provide that people can sue for money to compensate them for annoyance and inconvenience caused by acts of bad faith and sometimes attorney fees incurred in bringing the lawsuit and potentially punitive damages if the conduct of the insurance company is considered bad enough.

Ask your auto accident lawyer in Folsom whether in his or her opinion they actually reduce unfair practices by insurance companies.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact an auto accident lawyer in Folsom Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a auto accident lawyer in Folsom, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 357-6767

Insurance & Bad Faith Law

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You may or may not be surprised to find out that sometimes insurance companies do not act fairly toward people making claims. Common examples include accusing the person making the claim of being at fault for an accident when there is really no basis for making that assertion; waiting unreasonable amounts of time to pay claims; not offering reasonable amounts to settle claims; claiming that a particular event is not covered by a policy when it clearly and unquestionable is; failing to respond to phone calls and letter and so on.

Unfortunately, in most places, there is very little that a lowly little insurance claimant can do against a big, wealthy, powerful insurance company.

Most states have laws or regulations that prohibit insurance companies from being unreasonable. These laws are commonly referred to as “bad faith” laws. However, in many states these laws have little bite. The only thing a person can do if they are being treated unfairly by an insurance company is to make a complaint to the state government agency that regulates insurance and hope that it does something to try to get the insurance company to be reasonable and fair.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact an auto accident attorney in Folsom Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a auto accident attorney in Folsom, Joe Weinberger.

Pain & Suffering

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Unfortunately, when someone experiences a personal injury, they usually experience corresponding pain and suffering. Because pain and suffering can be one of the most unpleasant experiences in life, our society believes that when someone negligently causes pain and suffering to someone else, that the injured person should be compensated for having to endure that pain and suffering.

To some people, it may seem improper to try to place a monetary value on pain and suffering, but unfortunately that is the best that our system can do to try to make up for the pain. In other words, if we cannot take away the pain, the best we ca do is pay someone for having to experience it.

Presenting evidence to the jury regarding pain and suffering is inherently difficult. You cannot take an z-ray of pain or hook someone up to a machine that measures pain. Every person experiences pain differently. This, the only way to show the jury how much pain the plaintiff has suffered is to have the plaintiff describe the pain to the jury.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact an auto accident lawyer in Folsom Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a auto accident lawyer in Folsom, Joe Weinberger.

If You Are Injured, The Insurance Company Has All the Power

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When you are injured due to someone else’s negligence or recklessness, you are in a position of weakness. You’ve got medical bills to pay. You’ve got to figure out what to do with your job, how to make ends meet, how to take care of your family.

The negligent person doesn’t have those concerns. And the negligent person probably has an insurance company working for him or her to help defend against you.

The insurance company will see thousands of injury claims each year. The insurance company will have “adjusters” whose only job is to save the insurance company money and defeat claims by injured people. These adjusters are very good at what they do. Most experienced adjusters will have handled hundreds of thousands of claims. They will know how to trick the injured person into doing something that hurts his or her case. They will know how to make it seem like they are your best friends or have your best interest at heart.

The adjusters are not your best friend and do not have your best interest at heart. So, if you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Folsom auto accident attorney Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a Folsom auto accident attorney Joe Weinberger.

Liability Coverage

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Two types of coverage – bodily injury coverage and property damage coverage – are meant to insulate you from economic claims made by other people in the accident. Together, these two types of coverage are called liability protection because the insurance company agrees up to the limits of your individual policy, t assume economic responsibility (liability) for the damage you case to others as a result of the accident. Under liability coverage, the insurance company is only obligated to pay up to the limits specified in your policy. If the damage you cause exceeds your policy limits, the balance comes out of your pocket. Therefore, it is important to consider the amount of coverage you realistically need to protect your assets if you are found legally responsible for the damages caused by an accident.

In fault states, liability coverage is the only legally required automobile insurance. In no-fault states, no-fault coverage is compulsory in addition to liability coverage.

If you were in an accident it is always best to consult with an experienced Folsom auto accident lawyer immediately after the car accident. Call (916) 357-6767 to speak with auto accident lawyer in Folsom Joe Weinberger and receive a free consultation about your car accident case.