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.
