Insurance Adjusters’ Excuses

It is amazing talking to clients who have spent time trying to deal with their case on their own. They have a laundry list of reasons why their case is worth less than its true value. Insurance adjusters, who routinely ignore issues when they are dealing with an experienced personal injury lawyer, use everything they possibly can against the unrepresented. It is usually nonsense.

The drinking of a passenger may make them feel bad or have a sense of regret after a collision but the reality is that very rarely will it ever come in as an issue. Unless that drinking led to the passenger doing something to actively cause the collision, such as put their hands over the driver’s eyes, it is irrelevant for the most part.

The drinking of the driver can sometimes have no impact whatsoever on a collision. Even an absolute drunk, who is sitting there quietly at a stop light and is then rear ended, played no role in how that collision took place.

Not having a driver’s license and insurance. This can cause legal consequences as far as criminal charges go, but it does not create a collision. That uncovered driver who is just heading down the road played no impact in the defendant running through a red light and t-boning them.

Foreign nationalities do not in and of themselves make you at fault. It is troubling how many people with foreign surnames end up with quicker medical adverse examinations and lower offers. From time to time we actually hear stories about how adjusters have talked to them about how jurors are not going to like them because they are this nationality or that nationality. It is feeding into anxieties that individuals new to our country already have. The reality is that it did not create the collision. It also did not lessen whatever injury they had. Our firm has been proud to represent individuals of all nationalities and have often found that they are some of the hardest working clients who are doing their best to get better. The law was not written for Caucasian males.

The adjusters should not be telling you whether or not to talk to a lawyer. The actual act of talking to someone about whether they should talk to a lawyer is legal advice. Consequently, they are practicing the law without a license. Whose interest are they truly serving by suggesting that you should not talk to someone who can explain your rights?

“The statement is in your best interest.” I am amazed at how skilled adjusters are at ruining people’s cases as they sit down, drink coffee, seem to act like they care and maybe even share a cookie or a treat. I will read the statement they gave and see exactly what it was that the adjuster was honing in on and taking advantage of. It is not unusual to hear that an adjuster spent a half hour before turning on the recorder talking about all the issues and giving legal explanations of what things mean. The client will often tell me how good they felt after that meeting and how shocked they were that a week later a form letter arrived in their mailbox saying their client is not at fault. This is all based upon one or two questions tucked neatly into a 20 minute recorded interview. I am sure those adjusters will claim that they were just getting to the truth. I often see them just profiting by taking advantage of people who are just trying to do their best.