Overview
Many people assume that a car insurance company will treat them fairly after being injured in a car accident in Virginia. Some people may be reluctant to hire an attorney and may think that they can trust the insurance company to treat them fairly. Unfortunately, car insurance companies do not have your best interest at heart because car insurance companies make money by paying out as little as possible on claims. Even worse, car insurance companies sometimes employ unfair tactics to take advantage of accident victims who are not represented by attorneys. To protect your rights, you should consult with an experienced car accident attorney as soon as possible after being injured in a car accident.
Here are some common unfair tactics that car insurance companies use against unrepresented car accident victims:
1) Car Insurance Company Refuses to Consider the Full Amount of Your Medical Bills
Virginia follows the collateral source rule where an injured person is allowed to recover the full value of their medical expenses, regardless of any insurance payments or write-offs by the healthcare provider. Many unrepresented people do not know this rule, and car insurance adjusters often take advantage of such ignorance during settlement negotiations.
When making a settlement offer to an unrepresented people, some adjusters will only consider the part of the bill paid by health insurance or paid out-of-pocket by the injured person, but not any amounts adjusted or written off. By not considering the written-off or adjusted part of the bill, the adjuster is offering significantly less than what the claim is worth.
Let’s take the common example of a person who is injured in a car accident and obtains emergency room treatment. If the injured person got a full trauma work-up, including imaging such as MRIs or CT scans, it would not be uncommon for the ER bill to exceed $20,000. If the injured person has health insurance that covers the ER treatment, health insurance would pay much less than the face value of the bill, and by contractual agreement, the hospital would adjust or write off part of the bill. For a $20,000 ER bill, we might see the following as to payments and write-offs:
- Patient-Deductible/Co-pay: $1,000
- Health Insurance paid: $4,000
- Provider adjustment (write off): $15,000
In this example, health insurance and the injured person paid a total of $5,000 on a $20,000 bill, and the hospital wrote off the remaining $15,000. Some adjusters will try to take advantage of unrepresented people by only considering the $5,000 that health insurance and the patient paid but not considering the $15,000 portion of the bill that was written off.
This is an unfair tactic because in Virginia courts, the existence of health insurance, payments by health insurance, and adjustments made on bills paid by health insurance would be inadmissible. In other words, if the person with the $20,000 ER bill went to the trial, the only evidence that jury would hear was that the ER bill was $20,000, and the jury would be presented with no evidence or testimony regarding health insurance paying for part of the bill or the hospital writing off part of the bill. The defense attorney would not contest the $20,000 ER bill, because the attorney would know that the jury would award that bill as compensatory damages without question.
Behind the scenes, the car insurance adjuster is well aware that the $15,000 “reduction” that they are making on the $20,000 ER bill would never hold up in court. However, the adjuster makes this $15,000 reduction to the bill anyway, hoping to take advantage of an unrepresented person’s ignorance of the collateral source rule and Virginia law.
If you are dealing with an insurance adjuster who is not considering all of your medical bills, you should consult with an experienced car accident attorney to protect your rights.
2) Car insurance Company Only Offers to Pay 2/3 of Your Lost Wages
A person injured in a car accident caused by the fault of someone else is entitled to compensation for the lost wages that the injured person experienced as a result of the accident-related injuries. Lost wages include hours missed from work where the injured person was not paid as well as vacation time, sick time, or PTO that the injured person had to use.
In Virginia, an injured person is entitled to compensation for the full or gross amount of the lost wages, not the adjusted amount. If an injured person earned $20 per hour and missed 40 hours of work, the injured person gets to claim the full $800 as lost wages. The wage loss claim is not reduced by what the injured person would have paid for federal taxes, state taxes, health insurance, or any employer-provided benefits.
People are used to their employer withholding taxes from their paychecks, and insurance companies try to take advantage of this. During settlement negotiations, an adjuster will sometimes only offer 2/3 of the lost wage amount, claiming that injured person would have had to pay taxes on the amount if the person would not have missed work. Again, the adjuster is hoping that the injured person does not question this 1/3 reduction or consult with an experienced car accident attorney.
Again, if an insurance adjuster is not considering all of your lost wages or is reducing them for taxes, you should consult with an experienced car accident attorney to protect your interests and make sure you are not getting taken advantage of.
What You Should Do if the Insurance Company is Using These Unfair Tactics
If you are unrepresented and a car insurance company is not offering you the full value of your medical bills or lost wages, you should consult with an experienced car accident attorney. Some adjusters, upon seeing a letter of representation from an attorney on the case, will stop arbitrarily reducing medical bills and lost wages. Other adjusters, even with an attorney involved, will not change their position until a lawsuit is filed. You should consult with an experienced car accident attorney to protect your rights.
If you have been injured by in a Virginia car accident, contact Bordegaray Injury Law PLLC at 757-505-HURT (4878) or go to our Contact Us page to schedule a free consultation.
