Same Insurance For Both Parties

Transcript: What happens when you’re involved in an accident your insurance company also insures the other driver involved in the accident. This situation poses the greatest of dangers for anyone who is involved in a collision. As you would normally suspect, an insurance company representing the other driver is totally against you and is supposed to be acting to protect that other driver. However, when the same insurance company is on your claim and is an insurance carrier that you have hired to provide coverage for your vehicle and it’s on the opposite side of the case it can be disasterous. Any information you provide to your own insurance policy adjuster under your coverage may make its way into a file that is made available to the adjuster in that same company that is assigned to the other driver. And often very frequently we have found insurance companies now because they’re cutting back because of the economy using the very same adjuster to adjust both sides of the claim. Not only is this unethical in many situations and entirely inappropriate, it puts you at great risk because in your own policy there will be requirement that you talk to your insurance company and you provide them a recorded statement for your own company or you provide them information about the accident, and if you fail to do so that can void the insurance policy. But you certainly have no obligation to talk to the other driver’s insurance carrier. If it just happens to be the same company, you can be easily taken advantage of by that company. Now, that company has as its goal a desire to prevent you from making recovery. And it also has a desire to prevent the other driver from making any recovery against you. It’s the same company. It’s the left hand and the right hand of that company. So in those situations, to me, it is absolutely essential that you contact an attorney of your choice and get legal advice. The process as I have laid out for you is fraught with all kinds of dangers unless you have legal advice.