Saturday, July 25, 2009

The Importance of “Honesty” in Personal Injury Claims.

A recent article written by a personal injury attorney in Virginia confirms our own experiences in the personal injury world. In short, be honest. Be honest to your lawyer and with your medical providers. This means telling them what you really recall from the accident in question, and this also means telling them about all of the other accidents and injuries that you have sustained in the past. Remember, insurance companies can talk to each other and actually look up your prior claims. Further, almost all insurance companies (and the lawyers that work for them) will have the legal ability to research much of your medical history. We have seen more disasters than we wanted to when a client either failed to tell us or the treating doctors about the real facts that lead to the injury or the fact that they had prior injuries or claims. What would have been rather valid and compensable injuries evaporated (in a nuclear explosion) when the insurance company (or its lawyers) found a discrepancy, lie or even an exaggeration in the client’s story or medical treatment. Juries are already skeptical enough these days about even serious and legitimate claims. Lies or exaggerations not only feed that skepticism, they essentially can kill the claim altogether.

No comments:

Post a Comment