Most of us are good residents and buy legal responsibility insurance coverage to cowl us in case we trigger an accident. Some individuals buy minimal legal responsibility protection and a few individuals buy extra.
Whenever you purchase this insurance coverage you might be doing it to not solely adjust to the legislation, however to guard you and your belongings in case you trigger a automotive, bike, or different motorcar accident.
Now let’s say that you simply get into an accident that’s your fault; you report the accident to your insurance coverage service; you suppose that your insurance coverage firm will cowl you pursuant to your insurance coverage coverage proper? WRONG!
In the event you learn the nice print in your insurance coverage coverage you’ll discover a bunch of language that the majority non-lawyers wouldn’t perceive. The gist of the language in plain English is that by accepting the insurance coverage coverage, you conform to cooperate with the insurance coverage firm in the event that they resolve to litigate, and the insurance coverage firm is the one who decides whether or not a case might be settled, not you.
The insurance coverage corporations are all about making tons of cash and paying as little as attainable. For the reason that introduction of legally obligatory insurance coverage protection (Proposition 213 in California) the insurance coverage corporations have turn out to be very cavalier as a result of their coffers are stuffed with your cash.
As an alternative of settling meritorious claims, they’re forcing claims to be litigated in Court docket in an try to cease private damage legal professionals from acquiring a simply restoration for his or her purchasers. They know full properly that private damage legal professionals wouldn’t have as a lot cash to litigate as they do, so their ploy is to starve out the private damage legal professionals and finally make it tougher for people who find themselves injured in accidents to acquire a restoration. In the long run it’s the client and individuals injured in accidents who’re damage, whereas massive enterprise makes extra revenue at your expense.
Even individuals who trigger accidents and have correct legal responsibility insurance coverage to cowl the declare are being victimized by the insurance coverage corporations.
The insurance coverage corporations are specialists at deception. Together with your cash, insurance coverage corporations contribute cash to politicians, and run media adverts which blame the private damage attorneys for making insurance coverage charges so excessive. What they don’t say is that the backlog in Court docket is because of the insurance coverage corporations not settling claims like they need to within the first place.
Now let’s return to the instance of you inflicting an accident. If the insurance coverage firm is unreasonable and refuses to settle a case at or under coverage limits, you’ll then be dragged via the authorized system. You’ll have to reply discovery, seem for depositions, and even take day off to go to trial. This can be a lengthy and arduous course of that you simply didn’t suppose that must take care of whenever you bought legal responsibility insurance coverage. Shock!
In the event you lose at trial, the insurance coverage firm will normally pay the judgment, however guess what; YOU WILL HAVE A JUDGMENT AGAINST YOU ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT, and within the Court docket file! Because of your insurance coverage firm your credit score has simply been dinged resulting from no fault of your personal.
Is that this honest? I undergo you that it isn’t. You paid for insurance coverage; the insurance coverage firm may have settled the case for you inside your coverage limits; as a substitute, they determined to litigate in an try to attenuate what they should pay out in order that their earnings stay excessive. They did so with none regard in your credit score report, or having your title seem within the public report as having a judgment in opposition to you.
Many insurance coverage corporations have in-house legal professionals; some use exterior legal professionals. These legal professionals are alleged to have an obligation to you to do what’s in your finest curiosity. The truth is that they do what’s within the insurance coverage firm’s finest curiosity. That is the final word battle of curiosity. Ethically the legal professional that the insurance coverage firm makes use of to characterize you has an obligation to you, not the insurance coverage firm. The truth is the legal professional will get his marching orders from the insurance coverage corporations.
A worst case instance is the current Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. Have you ever examine all the poor people who find themselves getting screwed as a result of they don’t seem to be being lined by their insurance coverage corporations for insurance coverage that they paid for?
It’s time for America and shoppers to get up and scent the roses. It isn’t the trial attorneys which can be the issue; its massive enterprise eager to screw the little man to allow them to acquire extra revenue at your expense. Some have made this a political subject. I’ve even heard President Bush speaking about Tort reform, and blaming the trial attorneys for the nation’s well being care woes.
Anytime you right here tort reform keep in mind one factor; you might be about to be screwed! Anytime your proper to get better for damages in a Court docket of legislation is infringed upon, you can be the sufferer, whereas massive enterprise rakes within the mula!
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2007
