Another Sneaky Way Insurance Companies Deny Claims - Permissive Use

Reasons This D.C. Accident Attorney Has So Much Work to Do

Common Problems when making Lost Wage Claims

Documenting the time you miss from work will increase the value of your case significantly.  Missed time from work is compensable in itself (you get paid for the time you were off), but also is evidence of a more serious injury.  If you were hurt but went to work, it appears (rightly or wrongly) that you were not as seriously injured as someone else may have been.

Check out our wage verification form for an idea as to the type of information that an adjuster (or ultimately, a jury if necessary) will need to see evidence of your wages:
The name and address of your employer
A brief description of your position
How much you make, and how you get paid (hourly, salary, commission, etc.)
The dates you missed from work
The date you went back to work

You will have to prove you have paid your taxes.  Be prepared to show a pay stub showing your withholdings or a tax return if a case has to go to Court.

If you have questions about how to document your lost wage claim in an injury case, contact us -- 202-296-0666.

Insurance Companies are Soaking the Poor

As much as we like to talk about how bad credit can happen to anyone, the truth of it is that for the most part bad credit happens to people who are already poor.

If you stop for a second and think about all the ways in which poor people are taken advantage of, from everything to high interest rates to those scam payday loan places, you start to realize that the deck is truly stacked against those who arent making near six figures a year.

So it isnt much of a surprise that insurance companies raise their rates based not on the individuals driving record, but their credit history. This is perfectly absurd. A person could have a spotless driving record with no tickets or accidents, yet will still pay astronomical rates if he happens to have come into money troubles.

This is profoundly unfair. A persons insurance rates should be based on his or her performance behind the wheel above every other factor.

Read this article from Kansas City for more information.

Insurance Company Ratings

For those of you who are looking for realistic grading of insurance company performance, take a good look at how AM Best does business.

AM Best is an information provider that provides ratings and analysis about insurance companies, and the analysis is not  based on just the profitability of the companies, but rather their ability and willingness to promptly and fully pay claims.

This seems to be one of the better was to hunt for a good insurance policy.

www.ambest.com

If you have been injured in a car accident in the DC area, contact Lewis and Tompkins for a free legal consultation today.

Allstate Insurance Practices

How important is profit making to Allstate? Important enough for Allstate to hire a consulting firm, McKinsey & Co, to re-design their policies, methods and claims procedures that set up a claims payment system that shortchanges injured victims in automobile claims while earning big profits. The McKinsey documents, about 12,500 pages, is the Allstate Bible on how to amass large profits at the expense of its own policyholders.

How important is it to Allstate to hide their bad faith claims practices? Important enough to pay $25,000 a day in contempt charges for refusing to provide these records under Court subpoena in Missouri. That fine is now over $ 3 million and growing.

That is why the Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has suspended the authority of Allstate to sell new auto insurance policies in the State of Florida. The sanction is due to the fact that Allstate is refusing to provide records to the Insurance Commissioner. McCarty stated, "If Allstate is willing to pay $25,000 per day in fines to a Missouri Court for its ongoing failure to provide similar documents, it’s obvious to me that it will take more than a monetary sanction to get them to comply with our subpoena."

If Allstate simply paid their policyholders in Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury and Uninsured Motorist Property Damage cases, as they promise, there would be no need for the strategies and procedures that are outlined in the McKinsey documents.

The reposts show Allstate would sve $700 million (and boost shareholder value) by delaying and denying policy-holder claims -- for any reason or no reason.  Allstate should be like and alligator, the McKinsey reports state.  Allstate should "sit and wait" in the hope of frustrating claimants so they would accept less or simply give up their claims and go away.  If they don't, attack and drag them under.  How's that for "good hands?"

If you or the driver of the vehicle involved in your car accident have Allstate, you are NOT in good hands. Hire an attorney immediately to protect your rights and get you the compensation you deserve.

New Law Requires Insurance Companies in Maryland to Act in Good Faith

Under a newly enacted statute, insurance companies must act in "good faith"  in dealing with property and casualty (car accident) claims. "Good faith" is "an informed judgment based on honesty and diligence supported by evidence the insured know or should have known at the time the insurer made a decision on a claim."

Insurance Companies have a duty:

*To promptly investigate your claim

*Communicate regularly with you regarding the status of your claim

*Promplty pay you any undisputed portion of claim

*Provide a prompt and reasonable explanation of any claim denial or offer compromise settlement.

Maryland has now joined more than thirty States in extending first-party bad faith recovery to those injured in car accidents as well as those that have sustained damage to their property (automobile and home).

Over time, Insurance companies will be less likely to require plaintiffs to go through a trial to recover the money they deserve in the first place.

So what do you do when an insurance company does not act in good faith?

Before this new law, insureds had no real recourse against their Insurance Company when their property damage claims were not handled in "good faith".  When your recovery was limited to the damage to your vehicle, most people couldn't affort to hire an attorney to represent them.   Under the new law, attorneys can recover their attorney fees (up to one-third of the actual damages) as well as the expense of hiring experts and other costs if an insurance company is not acting in good faith.

For the past several years, Insurance Companies such as Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund (MAIF), State Farm Insurance Company, GEICO (Government Employee Insurance Company) Traveler’s Insurance Company, Allstate Insurance Company, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and others, have hired companies such as CORVEL to "audit" their insured’s medical bills for "reasonable and necessary" charges.  Medical bills that are owed by an injured person were not being paid fairly by their insurance company under the Personal Injury Protection (PIP).

Here's an example from our firm:  My client received a bill for $194.00 from the emergency room physician. His insurance company, GEICO refused to pay more than $70.20 of that bill leaving my client to pay $123.80. He has insurance, but they are simply refusing to pay, and leaving my client with the bill.  But that's only one bill, other bills for this client include a bill for chiropractic treatment and doctors visits for which $804.90 was denied payment by GEICO. These unreasonable and unnecessary cuts in payment of medical bills harm the injured person -- the person who paid the premiums every six months!

This also hurts the medical providers, because they are not getting paid.  My client is out of work and can't pay this bill.  GEICO is responsible for this bill, but is shirking its responsibility.   If the rest of the medical bill goes unpaid, the medical providers will send the bill to collections which affects the me client's credit and may result in a judgment against my client. With this law, attorneys can hold insurance companies responsible when they do not act in good faith.

Don't skimp on you car insurance

Most people when purchasing automobile insurance, are concerned only with saving money on their premiums.  Most people are buying insurance merely because they have to get insurance to get their tag turn on their vehicle.  Unfortunately, most people do not appreciate the important role that insurance has been protecting them and their an automobile accident.

Car accidents are exactly that, accidents.  No one wants to be involved in a car accident.

Here are some coverages that most people cut in order to save money on their premiums.  The most frequently cut coverages are:

• Personal injury protection.
• Underinsured motorist coverage.
• Collision

Once someone is involved in an accident, they discover the need for having these coverages.  What many people do not realize is that fully 40% of all the vehicles on the road and the District of Columbia have no insurance.  This is surprising to those people, particularly those people who are responsible and carry the required insurance coverages.  When involved in an accident with no insurance, if you don't carry those coverages themselves, people are left with no realistic way to recover for medical expenses. 

Here is an example:

A client came to our office, upset, because their car had been damaged.  The prior client's vehicle had been hit on the street by a vehicle that fled and did not leave any information behind.  The client asked us to help.  Here's the problem:  the client waived their collision coverage!  The adjuster told the client that , "You don't have collision, so we do not have to fix your car."  If only the client had bought collision coverage!

Fret not for our client, however!  We did get their car fixed - but through the client's uninsured motorist coverage (required to be provided in DC).  However, the adjuster did not tell the client (misled - really) that the car could be fixed through uninsured motorist coverages.  Once the client called us, the car was fixed in a week with only a $200.00 deductible.

Good thing they knew Lewis & Tompkins!

How Does Your Medical Insurance Company Rate?

In case you were wondering, insurance companies also deny claims for doctors as well.

The AMA has just put out a report card for every major health insurance company, grading them on how long it takes for them to pay what they owe to doctors.

Follow this link to see how your insurance company rates.

Allstate Now Uses the Oldest Excuse in the Book

Allstate Insurance Company has now resorted to the oldest excuse in the book:  Blame the Lawyer. 

The back story:

Allstate initiated a program in the mid-1990's designed to limit claim payments.  The program was designed by a consulting company named McKinsey.  Here's a brief summary of the program:

1. Allstate stopped paying claims.  By delaying claims as long as possible, Allstate made more mony on its reserves.  This was all pure profit.

2.  Allstate started evaluating claims based upon a computer program.  The program (designed and maintained by Allstate) was called Colussus.  Sounds ominous.  Colussus is (was) programmed to make lower payments.  Allstate then could claim "our computer says your claim is worth $100.00." 

3.  Allstate stopped negotiating with anyone.  Allstate would only offer the computer program offer. If you did not like it, tough.  Sue us.

4.  Allstate hired "in-house" attorneys.  Rather than pay counsel at defense firms their hourly rates, Allstate hired an army of lawyers and paid them a salary.  This fixed defense costs, and made them more money.   In a later post, I'll discuss the ethical issues this poses for attorneys.

5.  Allstate began a practice of deceptively manipulating people to prevent them from getting legal counsel, and discriminating against those that did retain counsel. 

Each of these tactics (and more) were a dramatic shift in the insurance industry.  Allstate was in the lead.  Many other insurers followed suit (State Farm, USAA, and Farmers to name a few) and now follow these practices. 

Now, in Florida, as part of a claim involving Allstate, counsel for a negligence victim requested from Allstate the documents (many of which have been produced in the past, including to my firm) outlining this program.  This was a run-of-the-mill rear end automobile accident, but Allstate treated the victim to the new program.  When asked for documents about the program, Allstate refused. 

A judge in Florida, after hearing the case, ordered Allstate to produce the documents.  Allstate again refused.  The Judge ordered Allstate to comply or face a $25,000.00 per day  fine.  Did Allstate comply?  No.

See, Allstate thinks it is above the law.  Allstate believes that the public resourse of the Courts are its private (taxpayer funded) claims evaluation device.  If a judge did not do what Allstate wanted, it ignored the judge.

This article, while reporting what I assume is good news, leaves some gaps.  Allstate claims that it did not produce the documents because of its lawyer.  "We thought our lawyer would handle it."  Nonsense.  Allstate's typical abusive litigation tactics finally caught up with them.  After one year, Allstate had still not done as ordered, and did not produce the doucments.  The matter settled on confidential terms, meaning that the plaintiff was so economically beaten down at that point, his grievance could not be heard in public.