What Are The Top Misconceptions People Have About Auto Accident Cases?

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Some of the common misconceptions that people have when they come meet with us or talk to us the first time regarding the auto accident or car wreck is that the insurance company for the responsible party who caused the car wreck has a duty to treat them fairly. Times have changed, not only in Texas but in the entire United States and many insurance companies have changed their practices and many states no longer regulate or discipline insurance companies as they have in years past for bad or unfair behavior in investigating, evaluating and paying valid insurance claims. Oftentimes, we hear of insurance executives or insurance adjusters who may move up in the company by shaving off claim payments in an effort to save money for the insurance company at the expense of the victim of a car wreck. We don’t know if there’s any actual real truth to that anecdote, but that’s what we hear from people in the claim industry. In Texas, the result if that there is very little consequence to the insurance adjuster or insurance company for being unfair.

Often, more times than not, they’ll be actually unfair from the very beginning, by causing delay or outright denial of many valid claims without any real investigation, which is why many people come to us for help in the first place. The victim of a car wreck just can’t understand why the insurance company is treating them this way when the victim believes the insurance company has a duty to treat them fairly. We explain to the victim, that no, that fairness by the insurance company is not the rule, so that’s one of the big misconceptions I address. Nowadays, more insurance companies are cutting even costs and expenses even further to by even resorting to firing more seasoned or experienced insurance adjusters and hiring younger but less experienced insurance adjusters with little training or experience. The insurance companies give the newer less experienced insurance adjusters so many claim files that it’s hard for them to evaluate and pay claims fairly even if they wanted to.

Another unrelated but common misconception that clients often tell me or the folks here is that they think the attorneys that they see on TV are the actual attorneys who are going to be handling their case from beginning to end result. In San Antonio and throughout the state of Texas, we have many attorneys who I would describe as more advertising “TV attorneys” not actively practicing law or helping clients, as many of them don’t even practice law anymore due the demands of modern day marketing. They come to our office and say things such as “We wanted to come see this specific attorney but we ended up meeting with somebody who really didn’t care about our case and then they come to us and we talk about it.” I tell them sometimes the sole job of the attorney who is on TV is to look good, be persuasive and bring in the money that’s necessary to pay for those expenses advertisements to bring in the “big” case. Many of the cases that are not considered “big” are sometimes sent to junior lawyers or other attorneys independent of that law firm or even legal assistants who sometimes have very little actual real experience in helping clients through a car wreck or through the real insurance process that it takes to deal with the car wreck.

What Is Fault And How Does It Affect My Auto Injury Case?

Surprisingly, a lot of people don’t understand that car wrecks involve determining who is at fault in causing a car wreck. At least in Texas and in several other states, we are a state that follows a law that says that you cannot recover from the other person’s insurance unless the other person is held responsible or at fault for causing the car accident or car wreck. Some states use “no-fault” car insurance law. In Texas, we use a law that is called Comparative Fault in determining who’s responsible in a car wreck and which insurance company should be responsible to pay or which should not be held responsible. Sometimes you have a wreck where a wreck may be a 100% of the other driver’s fault. For example, the other person ran a red light or was drunk driving or distracted on the cellphone. It’s clear that person is at fault and a police officer or an insurance company would put that other driver 100% at fault.

Now sometimes when there is a police officer involved though, they can rightly or wrongly place fault on one or more drivers involved in the car wreck. There are even other situations where street or weather conditions may play into who is responsible for a car wreck, for example, whether lighting or darkness can be come into play in determining who is at fault in the car wreck. Sometimes you’ll see many insurance adjusters will try and save their company money by arguing either wrongfully or unfairly that an innocent driver has some fault even if just a little bit in order not to pay the full 100% of the harm or the loss to the car or to the injury or to the injured person. This is why it’s important if you do have a serious car wreck, or serious injuries, that you talk with an attorney who can look at the facts right away and try to anticipate any type of argument that you were at fault in any way for causing a car wreck or that some other condition was at fault, for example, ice, rain.

Your attorney can secure the evidence or proof to meet any claim of fault the other insurance company may want to pin on you. Sometimes we have bad drivers that claim that their brakes didn’t work even though they drove for many miles with having no problems with the brakes until they hit our client. In the more serious car wreck, it’s important that you contact an attorney right away because we may need to be able to determine if an expert is necessary to inspect either a scene, take photographs of lights to make sure they’re working properly, get an accident reconstruction expert to examine a truck or a car and make sure that what they claim is not accurate. Many times, this can only be done early in the case because if the scene changes or the item that they’re claiming is broken is either repaired or changed then your expert cannot have an opportunity to look at that condition and dispel any claims that could try to put fault on you or any other condition that’s involved in your car wreck.

For more information on Auto Accident Cases In San Antonio and All Texas, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (210) 225-2828 today.