2) There was little or no property damage
“How could you have been hurt when there was only a small scratch on the bumper?” The is a common reason carriers give for why their offer is low. However, from a treatment standpoint, it does not matter what the damage was to the car. The doctor treating the injured person does not ask to see photographs of the car. He simply treats the injury. Some doctors will tell you that the force or energy from the collision must go somewhere, and oftentimes it creates the mechanism for the injury.
While there are some arguments to refute this excuse from the insurance company, at trial, the defense will blow up a photograph of the car to the sizes of a poster. They will argue to the jury that there was not property damage and that the person couldn’t possibly be injured. I must concede that sometimes the juries find this argument persuasive, and we have seen it used in some Charlottesville automobile injury cases.
Some medical providers will say there is no correlation between the damage and the injury. For example, when a football player is injured, the doctor does not ask to see the helmet, and people still believe that you can have a head or neck injury without damage to the football helmet.
Little or no property damage makes the case more difficult, but it does not make the case insurmountable if other evidence supports the case.
0 Responses to “9 Common Excuses Insurance Companies Use to Make Small Settlement Offers or No Offers at All: Series 2/9”