If you are a business, your goal is to make money. If you do not make money, you will go out of business. This principle is true whether you are a business that sells widgets, gadgets, or insurance. Insurance companies, like any other company, are focused on making profits. One way insurance companies make money is by trying pay the least they can on any given claim. Think of an insurance company like the famous bad guy, Ebenezer Scrooge. Both are misers and do not want to pay one cent more than they have to pay and ideally, they want to pay nothing at all. To reach this goal, insurance companies and their adjusters hope that you fall for one of their many traps. `
Trap 1: Making you believe that they are on your side and are here to help.
After an accident, it is common to feel overwhelmed. So when the insurance adjuster calls you, and he or she is so nice and friendly, you may be fooled into thinking that he or she is going to help you. But little did you know that this is just a trap. The insurance adjuster wants you to feel like you can trust them so that you provide them with the information that they can later use to justify a small settlement offer or to deny your claim completely.
Trap 2: Having you think the delays are necessary.
The insurance company will also try to get you to believe the delays in paying your claim are necessary. Again, this is all part of their strategy. The insurance company wants this process to drag on so you (1) become frustrated and will accept a lesser settlement offer just to have the matter over and done with, or (2) that by the time you decide to hire an attorney the statute of limitations has run and you are out of luck.
Trap 2: Letting you think that they will answer your questions honestly.
Another trap that injury victims fall into is believing that the answers the insurance company gives to their questions are honest. Remember that the insurance company wants to pay out as little as possible. It is against their interests to pay you the full value of your claim. To that extent, they are not going to give you an honest assessment of what your injuries are worth. They also do not want to tell you the defendant’s liability limits.
Trap 3: Getting you to think that you need to give a recorded statement.
One way an insurance company tries to deny a claim is by showing that the victim is not the victim. If the insurance company can prove that their client was not the bad guy, then, of course, they are off the hook. The way the insurance company tries to turn the victim into the bad guy is to have the victim give a recorded statement. The purpose of the statement is to use the victim’s own words as a way to deny the claim—a very clever trap.
If you have suffered serious injuries after being involved in an accident, do not fall into a trap set by the insurance company. Protect yourself by contacting an attorney who will make it their priority to make sure you receive the compensation you deserve. For more than 60 years, victims in both Kansas and Missouri have turned to the seasoned Personal Injury Attorneys at Hubbard & Kurtz, L.L.P. Our trusted team of Kansas City Personal Injury Attorneys are experienced trial attorneys who will fight to make sure your rights are protected. To schedule an appointment with one of our attorneys, contact Hubbard & Kurtz, L.L.P. today at (816) 472-4673.