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’re doing it to not solely adjust to the regulation, however to guard you and your belongings in case you trigger a automobile, motorbike, or different motorcar accident.
Now for instance that you simply get into an accident that’s your fault; you report the accident to your insurance coverage provider; you assume that your insurance coverage firm will cowl you pursuant to your insurance coverage coverage proper? WRONG!
In case you learn the effective 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 comply with cooperate with the insurance coverage firm in the event that they determine to litigate, and the insurance coverage firm is the one who decides whether or not a case can be settled, not you.
The insurance coverage firms are all about making tons of cash and paying as little as potential. For the reason that introduction of legally necessary insurance coverage protection (Proposition 213 in California) the insurance coverage firms have turn into very cavalier as a result of their coffers are filled with your cash.
As a substitute of settling meritorious claims, they’re forcing claims to be litigated in Courtroom in an try to cease private damage legal professionals from acquiring a simply restoration for his or her shoppers. They know full effectively that non-public damage legal professionals should not have as a lot cash to litigate as they do, so their ploy is to starve out the non-public damage legal professionals and in the end 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 large 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 firms.
The insurance coverage firms are consultants at deception. Together with your cash, insurance coverage firms contribute cash to politicians, and run media advertisements which blame the non-public damage attorneys for making insurance coverage charges so excessive. What they do not say is that the backlog in Courtroom is as a result of insurance coverage firms 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 beneath coverage limits, you’ll then be dragged by way of the authorized system. You might have to reply discovery, seem for depositions, and even take day without work to go to trial. This can be a lengthy and arduous course of that you simply didn’t assume that must cope with whenever you bought legal responsibility insurance coverage. Shock!
In case you lose at trial, the insurance coverage firm will generally pay the judgment, however guess what; YOU WILL HAVE A JUDGMENT AGAINST YOU ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT, and within the Courtroom file! Due to your insurance coverage firm your credit score has simply been dinged as a result of no fault of your individual.
Is that this honest? I undergo you that it’s not. You paid for insurance coverage; the insurance coverage firm might have settled the case for you inside your coverage limits; as a substitute, they determined to litigate in an try to reduce 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 file as having a judgment in opposition to you.
Many insurance coverage firms have in-house legal professionals; some use exterior legal professionals. These legal professionals are imagined to have an obligation to you to do what’s in your greatest curiosity. The truth is that they do what’s within the insurance coverage firm’s greatest curiosity. That is the last word battle of curiosity. Ethically the lawyer 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 lawyer will get his marching orders from the insurance coverage firms.
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 coated by their insurance coverage firms for insurance coverage that they paid for?
It is time for America and shoppers to get up and odor the roses. It’s not the trial attorneys which might be the issue; its large enterprise eager to screw the little man to allow them to get hold of extra revenue at your expense. Some have made this a political situation. 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 bear in mind one factor; you’re about to be screwed! Anytime your proper to recuperate for damages in a Courtroom of regulation is infringed upon, you may be the sufferer, whereas large enterprise rakes within the mula!
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2007
