The Question: Do Insurance Companies Accuse Innocent Injured Folks of Fraud?
The Answer: Unfortunately, Yes.
Be Honest with Your Personal Injury Lawyer
We will help you establish credibility. The time immediately after an accident is stress-filled and confusing, perfect for making mistakes. Your personal injury lawyer is on your side. Tell them everything you can as truthfully as you can and let them best guide you. They will know what details matter, and help you avoid mistakes.
Do not let the insurance company paint you, the injured party, as someone just out for a paycheck. Attacking your credibility is a standard industry practice. Fraud accusations are common and scare people into accepting low settlements. Insurance companies will jump on any difference between your story and provable facts. If successful, your payout will be reduced. Facts are open to interpretation and insurance companies can make allegations that can irrevocably damage a lawyer’s ability to represent you.
Read on to learn more.
Your Credibility Matters
You do not have to pay out for an injury if there is no injury. Insurance companies benefit from claiming you are exaggerating your injuries if not outright faking them. If something you say ends up being factually incorrect, it begs the question “What else are they wrong about?”. Your whole case could be threatened if you are found untrustworthy. Credibility goes beyond simple lying. Have you ever experienced someone in your life self-diagnosing an illness? Depending on their history, you may or may not believe them. Try to stick to simple provable facts, credibility matters. During the course of your matter, you need many people to trust your word. Your attorney, the opposing party, the jury, the judge, and the doctors will all need to believe you.
Your Story Needs to Match the Facts
We will use medical records, police reports, and any other relevant items to help establish your claim. However, your story will still need to be heard. If you are found to be wrong or lying about one item, doubt can be cast on your whole story. Do not stack the deck in the insurance company’s favor. Be honest with your lawyer and let them guide you to the best result. Assume the insurance company can and will catch any exaggerations or falsehoods.
One of the most important services your personal injury lawyer will provide is preparing you to give testimony. Testimony is a bit like politics; how you phrase things matters. Have you ever noticed how often lawyers become successful politicians? Retain a personal injury lawyer and learn how to best tell your story.
Losing Credibility Means Losing Money
Once your credibility is lost, you have to rely heavily on documented facts. This means spending time and money on tests and experts. This is time and money you may not be able to reclaim. However, even with the best experts and tests, some items are just hard to prove to be true. Chronic pain after an injury is extremely common, but largely is based off of your word. If you experience a car accident that leaves you with daily headaches you deserve compensation, but you have to convince someone that those daily headaches are severe as you claim. You need credibility. We will help you establish credibility.
Lying Hurts Your Attorney-Client Relationship
It is only natural to want to downplay any potential problems with your case. You are hurt and want to do everything possible to win. It is important, however, that you be completely honest with your attorney about your injury and also about previous injuries. A large part of being an attorney is preparation. If your attorney can't see the whole picture, you are blindsiding them. There is nothing worse than being caught off-guard or suddenly having to change strategies because new facts came to light that should have been previously disclosed.
The American Bar Association has an excellent article detailing what to do when your client lies. Basically, lying to your attorney creates ethical issues that will hurt your case. Ultimately, this could result in your lawyer needing to withdraw from your matter. This can also make it difficult to find a new attorney.
Feel Comfortable Talking to Us
Attorney-client confidentiality means that everything you tell your attorney will be held in the strictest confidence. The attorney can then decide on how best to proceed and decide what information is relevant and what is not. This way, you can be sure your credibility is firmly protected, giving you the best chance possible at winning your case.
Johnson Law’s fee structure is set up so that we win when you win big. We win together. To quote one of our favored phrases, “United we stand, divided we fall”. Schedule a consult to begin the process. We do what we can to make this easy for you.
