Can Insurance Companies Lie to You?

Can Insurance Companies Lie to You?

Well, Technically… 

Insurance companies can, and frequently do, mislead you in order to ensure a better outcome for themselves. Here’s a good example: insurance companies get to keep more money when the injured person accepts a lower settlement. So, an insurance adjuster may tell the injured person something like, “You don’t need to hire an attorney to get this resolved.” Technically, that’s true: you are not obligated to hire an attorney after a car accident. However, it’s almost always in the insurance adjuster’s best interest for you not to hire an attorney since attorneys, on average, get their clients a settlement that’s three times higher than the settlements of those who didn’t have an attorney. Insurance companies and insurance adjusters should not and cannot legally tell you lies about coverage, rates, etc.—but more on this later. For now, just know that, in some cases, an insurance adjuster can mislead you about what steps are in your best interests. 

“Do I Need an Attorney?” 

While there are no certainties in life, you can be nearly certain that the insurance adjuster you’re speaking to didn’t go to law school. Therefore, your insurance adjuster isn’t in a position to tell you whether or not you need an attorney. Only an attorney can tell you that. If you’ve sustained injury in an accident, it is in your best interests to at the very least attend a free consultation with a personal injury attorney. When it comes to personal injury, a free consultation is typically considered to be standard, so you should never have to pay for the initial consultation. Personal injury attorneys usually take cases on contingency, so you shouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket. Instead, your settlement will cover all your legal fees. Insurance companies may tell you that an attorney will take a portion of your settlement to cover your legal fees—which is true—but they probably won’t tell you that, according to statistics, attorneys usually get their clients 3 times more than insurance companies offer, even after the pre-negotiated legal fees are subtracted from the settlement. So, if an insurance company is telling you that you don’t need an attorney, make sure you get a second opinion from someone who actually went to law school. 

Unethical Settlement Tactics 

Some insurance adjusters do lie to injured people in order to get the injured person to agree to a settlement offer. They may tell you that the release statement you’re going to has certain terms even though it doesn’t. A crooked adjuster may tell you that you’re not eligible for certain benefits so you might as well settle now. They may pressure you with deadlines in hopes of securing a faster (and hopefully lower) settlement. Insurance adjusters may even make up lies about how the law works in order to get a person to accept a settlement. For this reason, it is likely in your best interest to attend a free consultation before you agree to anything with the insurance company. 

Questions about Coverage 

Insurance agents can’t legally tell you lies about what each policy covers, and there may be consequences if they tell you that you have certain types of coverage when you do not. If you have questions about coverage, make sure that you get your answers in writing. It may be difficult to prove that they verbally told you that you have coverage when you don’t really. Many insurance agents and adjusters have email addresses where you can email your questions about your policy. You may want to email your insurance agent your questions instead of calling them on the phone and asking. You can also read your policy to verify that you do have the coverage they’re claiming you have. 

Shady Practices 

If an insurance agent is selling you a policy and they tell you it covers everything: theft, acts of god, nuclear explosions, and any incidents that happened in Marvel movies, all for a low price of $200 per month, it may sound like a pretty good deal, maybe even too good to be true. Unfortunately, not all insurance agents are honest, even when it’s illegal to be dishonest. Always verify what the agent is telling you. You can do this by reading your policy that you receive in the mail, or that you see when you log in to your account online. Premium theft, for example, is a very common scam: an insurance agent sells a client a policy but keeps the premiums for themselves. If an agent has done this to you, you do not have insurance and will be exposed to financial liability in the event of an accident. You should always verify that the policy matches what you’ve been told. Another common scam to watch out for is rate evasion: sometimes crooked insurance agents will lie about their client in order to get them a better rate. For example, the agent may claim a driver has never been in an accident in order to get the driver a better rate and close the deal. If you are the driver in this situation, insurance can deny your claim in the event of an accident, even if you weren’t the one who lied. If you see something that isn’t true, you need to speak up about it, ideally before the policy is issued. 

When You’ve Sustained Injury 

If you’ve sustained injury due to the negligence of another person, Moxie Law Group is here for you. Contact us today to get started on your free consultation.