If you ever get hurt and have to make a claim against another person's insurance company, you have to know how to avoid playing into their hands. Insurance companies are powerful corporations that never have your interests at heart despite their promises in commercials. You have heard me say before that you definitely must avoid talking to the other party's insurance adjuster. When that adjuster calls after an accident, you will be far better off if you have already talked to a lawyer who should have advised you to say, I'm represented by an attorney. At that point, the adjuster has a legal obligation to discontinue the conversation. But there are other things that you can do to avoid being taken advantage of by an insurance company after you've been hurt.
The practical suggestions I'm going to give you center around some of their common defenses. First, they will have a powerful defense against a personal injury case if you didn't get medical treatment shortly after the accident. Your delay in getting treatment gives the insurer the opportunity to argue that if you had been hurt much, you surely would have gotten treatment. Delay in treatment also gives the insurance company a chance to argue that between the accident and your first medical treatment you must have been injured by something other than the accident that its driver caused.
Second, it will try to defend by showing that you have had lengthy breaks in treatment for your injuries. Because their lawyers can argue to the jury that if you weren't getting treatment, you weren't hurting. It's a logical and compelling argument. It's not true in many cases, because some people just don't have insurance to cover treatment they need. Nevertheless, you can avoid this common and misleading defense by going to your doctors as often as you need to and not letting the insurance companies use gaps in treatment against you. Even if there's no insurance to cover the treatment, a good personal injury attorney can arrange for your treatment until your case is settled and you have the money to pick up the cost of treatment yourself.
