For any dopers who were at fault in a motor vehicle accident that caused injury to another party, did your insurance company tell you that they paid a claim on your behalf? Did they specify property damage, or medical bills?
A family member was injured several years ago in a collision. My family member had to be transported from the scene of the collision to a trauma center by ambulance. The police found the other driver 100% at fault.
Initially the other driver’s insurer paid the claims for damaged property (damaged eyeglasses and a totaled vehicle) with only some aggravation. But they steadfastly refused to pay any of the medical bills, not even the obviously needed ambulance.
I could understand not coming to initial agreement about any pain and suffering damages since that is something that doesn’t have a dollar figure attached to it on a bill. But I naively thought the insurer would pay (certainly no more than the policy limit) for the ambulance and emergency room assessment and treatment. They didn’t.
Eventually, after about three years, this went to trial and the jury awarded medical bills and some for pain and suffering. While the insurer did make an offer to settle, they didn’t offer anything until well after a lawyer had been hired by my loved one.
But it occurred to me that the at fault driver might not have known that his insurer was not paying the medical claim until my relative sent him a demand letter a few months after the collision. If I had been at fault in a crash and found out several months later that my insurer was not paying I would be furious with them.
So… to the teeming masses, if you were at fault in a car crash did your insurer let you know they were paying a claim on your behalf? Did they pay medical bills of the other party without having to get lawyers involved? How long did it take? Basically, what did you know and when did you known it about what your insurer was doing on your behalf?
They generally don’t tell you anything. They indemnify you against the claim, but part of the deal is that they step into your shoes in managing and defending the claim. They can collapse at once and pay in full; they can fight it aggressively, denying liability and disputing the amount of damages at every point; they can adopt any intermediate position. They will do whatever they judge to be best in their own interests. It doesn’t affect you in any way; they won’t ask your opinion because it has no relevance and will have no influence on them; and they won’t keep you abreast of what is happening because, if they did, that might encourage you to think that it was some of your business, and even encourage you to express an opinion which they would then be put to the trouble of disregarding.
OK, I exaggerate. But, basically, once they acknowledge that they are covering the claim, you’re out of the picture, unless they need you (e.g. to give evidence at a trial, if the matter doesn’t settle). They don’t keep you informed because that would cost time and money and adds no value to the process of settling the claim.
I strongly suspect that the insurer didn’t pay your relative’s medical bills because they had reason to believe they didn’t have to. There was probably some factor—maybe an obvious error in the police report or even the fact that your relative didn’t have a lawyer—that caused them to drag their feet on paying.
Insurance companies have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders to pay only the absolute minimum that they’re legally obligated to. Insurance adjusters often claim to be looking out for the insured’s interest, but (IMHO) that’s essentially a lie. They are looking out for their company’s interest to the exclusion of all else. And that’s economically rational on their part, but it leads to some ugly realities.
They don’t care how you feel about what they’ve paid or when they paid it. They ask “were you injured” not because they care about you but because they hope you’ll say you weren’t. That greatly limits their liability. If you come back later and say, “actually, my neck hurts,” they’ll fight he claim based on your own assertion that you weren’t injured. They’ll do this whether they think you’re telling the truth or not.