The car wreck was not your fault. So why does the insurance company make you feel like it was?

Hi, I’m Joel Hudson with Carrollton Injury Law here in Carrollton, Texas. If you’ve ever dealt with an insurance company after a car wreck, I bet you know what I’m talking about. The insurance company will ask you so many questions about the accident and what you did, it’ll make you feel like they’re blaming you for the accident, or that you should feel sorry for being hurt – and if you decide to answer the insurance company’s questions, don’t be surprised if it comes back to haunt you later with a lowball offer.

Two Mistakes to Avoid

It all starts with an insurance company asking you to give a recorded statement, and that’s where most of our clients make their first two mistakes:

1. They give a recorded statement.
2. They treat it like a friendly conversation.

The insurance company is not your friend. Their only purpose for taking your statement is to get you to admit something on the record that they can twist against you in your injury claim later. They want to make you second guess yourself. It’s their way of conditioning you now to accept their lowball offer later.

You don’t deserve to be treated like that. You’re worth more than that, and your injury claim is darn well worth more than the lowball offer you’re going to get without an attorney.

What Not to Say

Some common examples of statements that can be made that will backfire later can be as innocent as stating that the sun was shining, or that it was raining and the roads were wet. It can be admitting that you were looking at your G.P.S. or changing your radio station. Maybe you state that your blinker was on or your state your blinker was off.

One of the biggest things is guessing at your speed of travel when the accident occurred.

All of these things are going to be used against you later to make you think it was your fault for causing this accident, but the simple fact is, more times than not, the accident is 100% the other driver’s fault, so don’t let the insurance company make you second guess yourself.

How the Insurance Company Can Use Your Words Against You

Some arguments that we hear the insurance adjusters try to argue all the time might be:

1. In a rear end case, they’ll try to say your brake lights must not have been working, or that you made a “sudden” stop.
2. Maybe it’s someone trying to dangerously exit the highway – they’ll claim that you must have turned into their lane.
3. We hear it all the time about a case with low property damage. The insurance adjuster will state, “Oh, well, the cars weren’t even damaged enough for someone to be hurt in this accident.”
4. My personal favorite, when the other driver runs a red light or runs a stop sign, and the adjuster will claim that you were traveling too fast, otherwise you would have avoided this accident.

The simple fact is that in all of these client examples, our client had the right of way, and that’s all that matters.

The for-profit insurance company will try to twist the facts in their favor to either deny your claim, or try to pay the least amount possible. Perhaps they told you that you’re 20%, 30% or 40% or more responsible for this accident. Whatever percentage you agree to is just going to go to the bottom line profit for that insurance company.

If the accident wasn’t your fault, but the insurance company is making you feel like it was, don’t accept it. Pick up the phone and give us a call today to schedule your free injury claim evaluation. We will show you how we put Personal back into Personal Injury Law.