Insurance Companies Tactics to Delay or Devalue your Claim
Within the current insurance system, they use insurance company tactics to minimize their risk. A minor injury to soft tissue (M.I.S.T.) resulting from a car accident is often looked over as a legitimate claim. One insurance tactic relies on it being hard to prove pain or injury. While out of pocket costs for medical treatment are typically easy to prove, verifying pain and suffering presents a greater challenge. Since damages for pain and suffering requires a subjective evaluation by the victim, insurance companies exploit the potential for inadequacies that can result from such evidence. This often prevents policyholders from getting the compensation they deserve, simply because their injuries go beyond a single instance of provable trauma.
Even without this implied scrutiny policyholders must face yet another hurdle, Colossus, a computer program that functions as an insurance company’s primary means of analysis. Colossus removes human empathy and understanding from the equation by relying entirely on categorical numerical input. Therefore, claims that require adjustments for stress, pain, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, or loss of consortium cannot be calculated by this computer data-driven system.
Among insurance tactics, one factor that often incites questioning and additional attempts at a reduction are when damages to the car are disproportionate to the injuries endured by the victim. Insurance providers operate from the perspective that if damage to the car is minimal, resulting in human injury must also be minimal. Because of this ideology assertion of pain and suffering that is not entirely authenticated by medical documentation are often refuted and questioned. The scientific community confirmed this in a study published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology in 2001 entitled The Association Between Exposure to a Rear-End Collision and Future Health Complaints, which revealed that whiplash injuries can have a substantial impact on health effects long after the collision, and that car damage is not always an indication of potential for physical injury. In spite of these findings, Colossus continues to be utilized by insurance companies.
Insurance Tactics to Limit or Deny Claims
- Induce the injured party to agree to a recorded statement and coerce you into saying something that could be used as evidence to reduce your claim.
- Persuade you to take a very low initial offer in order to fast-track your settlement.
- Challenge the extent of liability for the accident by rendering you at fault. (Comparative Negligence: Reduction in damages equivalent to % of your fault)
- Challenge causation and attribute pain to pre-existing injuries.
- Challenge the impact and severity of your injury by asserting that costs were not mitigated due to inaction from the victim.
Don’t fall victim to these lucrative tactics utilized by insurance companies and let the Law Offices of Christopher Jackson assist you in getting the compensation you deserve. Call us at 859-261-1111.
Articles Cited:
https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(00)00369-3/fulltext