Insurance Scam – Signing Away Your Rights

Transcript: Hi. I’m Indiana personal injury attorney David Holub.

We had a call last week from a person who called to say her brother was in an auto accident, and the other driver’s insurance company just called and offered him $4,000, plus agreed to pay double that in medical bills, if the bills were submitted within 60 days, and all he had to do was sign a release.

This all made the caller suspicious and she decided to call an attorney to get some answers.

Whenever an insurance company wants to give you something in exchange for a release, you can bet that it is doing it solely for its own financial gain, not yours.

Think about what the insurance companies accomplishes if it gets an injury victim to sign a release based on the type of offer made to this caller’s brother.

First, it is closing out any potential for a lawsuit within 60 days.

The law provides that a party can sue for up to two years in most cases for injuries they have received in a crash or similar circumstance.

Why does the law allow for two years?

Well, often it’s difficult to determine the extent of a medical injury within a short period of time like 60 days.

In many auto crash cases, it takes weeks to get an appointment with a family physician. Then once you see that physician, a few more weeks passes before you can get into have an x-ray or MRI image taken.

Then you have to go back to the doctor again to have the doctor consult with you and review the imaging to determine treatment protocols.

Before you know it, you could be beyond that 60-day time window, and not have a good handle at all on how seriously injured you might be.

Second, by entering such an agreement you cap the amount of money you can ever recover from the insurance company and defendant driver.

That again is to the insurance company’s benefit.

In the typical case the amount of money that you can recover for an injury is limited only by what a jury might decide after hearing all of the evidence about your medical condition.

Why would an insurance company want to put a cap or limit on its liability?

Easy answer, because it’s job is to make the most money for the shareholders of the company.
Bottomline, count on the fact that the insurance company making an offer is not doing you any favors when it tries to get you to sign a release and severely limit the damages that it might be required to pay out on a claim.

If you get such a proposal it is always smart to consult an attorney. Most lawyers will be happy to speak with you for free.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you have questions about your legal rights if you get hurt due to the carelessness of another person, or as a result of substandard medical care, or due to a product defect, construction injury, or any other type of personal injury, please give us a call at +1 (219) 736-9700.