Why is the 1st thought out of people is to sue? It's because if you don't the insurance will screw you over. It's a sad thing but it is a fact of life. My wife has had 2 bodily injuries caused by other people and both times we entered into the process thinking that we'd just go with what needed to be done and both times about 3 mos. into getting her treated and better the insurance co. tried to screw her. Now I'm not sue happy but after those two incidents one was a work injury and the other an auto accident and both times we ended up needing a lawyer, so from that point on I am just turning everything over to mine. If these insurance co's would stop trying to screw with people and do what they signed on for then there would be no need for litigation but it seems that they don't care to. Then the main problem is now that you've have been forced to retain a lawyer you go from just trying to get your car fixed, or get the proper treatment turns more monetary since you now need to pay his fees.
Here's a small example of what they did, my wife was a teacher and was injured by a student at school. She went to her doctor and he started physical therapy due to a neck injury from the incident. This put her off work, she was getting her treatments and then the insurance co. decides that they want a second opinion. No problem right? Well we go for the appointment and this DR. doesn't even take and X-Ray, he sits her in his office and tells her that she looks fine and needs to return to work. Not one to cower and go along with him she tells him he's nuts, that he hasn't even examined her and didn't even take an X-Ray. He of course says he has all her records and he sees nothing. Well after discussing a bit longer he agrees to a new X-Ray and off we go to have it done.
Once back at this quacks office we drop off the X-Rays and I decide that is all we will do, no more. So we sit in the waiting room for about an hour and that's about enough of that so we tell the receptionist that we are leaving, that this was all a sham and currently my wife's neck is killing her from all of this and she had an appointment at her real DR. She gets all huffy and says that if we leave we are jeopardizing her coverage. I flat out told her that they were jeopardizing her health by making her sit there and we were leaving.
So we started to leave, as we were walking out the front door we heard the DR. in a panic talking with the receptionist about needed to contact a patient as soon as possible and to get to their DR. immediately. She reply's that she is just walking out the door (my wife), he runs out of the office and tells her to please sit down and do not move. Turns out that the second set of X-Rays revealed that her neck was actually broken and was slowly separating at C5 and C6.
Wow what a change, he was so upset with himself for not going through the motions of even making sure she wasn't injured and then to find that she was not only severely injured but at that point was about ready to start cutting nerves in her spine. He immediately restrained her and called the hospital for emergency surgery. He called her DR. and informed him what was going on and that the 1st. X-Rays they took did not reveal the break.
Off to surgery she goes and the fused her neck and then had to put a piece of metal in to hold it all together. End of story you think? Insurance co believes she not severely injured and that they now leave her along? I don't think so.
They actually put a private investigator on her watching everything she did trying to catch her doing something so that they didn't have to pay. Due to my job at the time I was very aware of my surroundings and anything that may be following me. Once they followed as we were looking at a home, they parked in front of my neighbors house in a van with cameras rolling, they sat down on the corner watching. One morning I was coming home from work and there was a car parked at the corner with a perfect view to my home, all the windows were limo tinted so you could not see in but the dummy had his drivers side window down. As I drove down the street I could clearly see he had a camera pointed directly at my house, I waved as I drove by and parked in my driveway.
Then the next week the same deal but this time I decided to play with him. About the only thing my wife could do at this point was walk or sit so we'd go garage sale hunting. As I arrived home I saw the dummy parked down the street so I set him up. I told my daughter to page me if he left when we did and I'd know what to do at that point, sure enough a minute after we left my pager went off so I now know he's there and I slowed down so he'd catch me. As I approached the super market I signaled to turn knowing he'd not follow but would turn at the corner and come in that way. So now I'm going one way and he's coming the opposite way at me in a busy parking lot that I had no intention of parking in at all. I drove right past him waved and drove out of the lot losing him since he had to now drive around the lot to get out. Dumb-ass.
Now we've got that home I was talking about looking at and it is move day and guess who's watching? So comes the final set-up, I take one load to the new house and since we had already notified them of the move they know where it is at and as I'm driving he comes flying down the freeway at at least 100mph. passes us and is sitting at the new house. So the next trip I have my youngest daughter put on one of my wife's neck braces and start moving stuff. Man I could just hear the camera clicking away! Got my truck loaded again and headed back with the repeat at the new house.
Of course the confrontation takes place and that not only were they going to stop here insurance but that they intended on prosecuting. I asked to see the pictures which the investigator proudly produced, I slowly looked them over with a very concerned look on my face, looked up and saw the smirks on their faces, I handed them to my wife, she slowly looked them over. You could have heard a pin drop when she told them nice pictures of my daughter messing around with one of my old braces!
I never saw another investigator after that. This is why if you are severly injured the 1st stop even before you get treated should be a lawyer, it is a sad statement but a true one. Here you have a legitimate claim and they still try to find a way out. It's the insurance companies own fault we ended up with a lawyer. All we wanted was to fix her neck and all they wanted was to deny her every step of the way.
Sorry about the rant but they created the sue happy monster that consumes them not us. Since that incident the 1st person I contact is my lawyer for my own protection. What he does with it I'm along for the ride.
Hope you feel better Joe.
