The Secret Weapon Used by Insurance Companies to Unfairly Resolve Minor Accident Claims – The Three D’s: Delay, Deny, Defend

Inverness, Florida – A report from CNN uncovered a practice used by insurance companies to deny and limit you the compensation you may deserve after suffering injuries in an auto accident.

After conducting an 18-month investigation, CNN obtained documents from Allstate and State Farm, demonstrating a strategy developed in the mid-1990s to delay injury settlements and deny minor accident claims.

Even though car accidents with only minor visible vehicle damage can cause painful and costly personal injuries to drivers and passengers, these soft tissue injuries can be difficult to prove in court because they are not easy to see on X-rays. As the article goes on to show, juries are often easily persuaded by insurance companies to believe that an accident with slight vehicular damage could not have caused serious injuries.

So, just what is the strategy used by insurance companies like Allstate and State Farm? It’s known as the Three D’s: Delay, Deny, Defend. They delay the claim as long as possible, while injury victims are left to face expensive medical bills and lost wages on their own. They deny the claims and then defend their decision in court.

This entire process can take several years, or even longer. Once the claim makes it to trial, injury victims may appear as if they no longer suffer from any injuries, even though they may have racked up thousands of dollars in medical bills. Many accident victims may accept lowball settlements by the insurance company out of fear that if they try to fight for what is rightfully theirs, they will end up with nothing at all.

This scheme is how insurance companies make billions in profit. Most people do not fight for adequate compensation needed for their injuries due to the hardball tactics employed by insurance companies. In fact, insurance industry insiders claim about 80 to 90 percent of accident victims accept paltry settlement offers, sometimes as low as $50.

This take-it-or-leave-it approach has made pursuing claims so costly and time-consuming that most injury victims give up. This is the ultimate goal for insurance companies like State Farm and Allstate. They claim that these tough strategies are the only way to prevent fraud and keep premiums down, but that is not the case.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, since these tactics were implemented premiums have roughly risen by at least 30 percent.

The accident victims that choose to pursue their claim in court face a tough battle. As this piece illustrates, insurance companies rely on photographs to show that the accident resulted in only minor damage to the vehicles involved. They aim to make injury victims appear fraudulent, convincing juries to believe that an accident which caused small minor damage to a vehicle could not cause serious injuries.

Unfortunately, juries often buy into these schemes and limit the amount of damages awarded to the victim.

This does not mean that injury victims are never successful when taking on insurance companies. After sustaining injuries in a car accident in Inverness, Crystal River, Beverly Hills, Lecanto, Homosassa, Dunnellon, Hernando, Sugarmill Woods, Citrus Springs, or Floral City, the best thing you can do is speak with the Citrus County Injury Lawyers at Whittel & Melton. Insurance companies will try to settle your accident claim for much less than you need or deserve, so do not sign any documents or make any statements to an insurance adjuster without talking to us first. As trial attorneys, we will fight to secure the full and fair compensation you deserve.

If you have been seriously injured in a major or minor auto accident in Citrus County, contact the Citrus County Injury Attorneys at Whittel & Melton online or call 352-726-0078.