Is your Car Insurance company a PREDATOR?

In June of ’09 I blogged about being a Victim even though I am the Plaintiff. (Go Here)

To understand what this blog is about you must read this as a preface to understand my point.

“Almost three years ago (July 13, 2006) I was riding in a car driven by a friend. When we came to a stop, we were blocking a drive way and within seconds, we were struck in the passenger side by a motorist backing out of her long driveway in her mid sized SUV. Yes, I was injured, and I am still having medical issues, but that is not what this blog entry is about.

Here in Oregon, you must sue the drivers and then their insurance companies will pay for and supply the defense attorneys. I had to sue my friends. I don’t like that but, again, that is not what this blog entry is about.

It is about a legal system that has lost its direction. I am the injured party, I am the plaintiff or so I thought.

I am under attack by TWO insurance companies and their hired guns. Over the last three years I have had to hire THREE different law firms. The first ‘team; I caught lying to me, not once but many times, so I fired them. That cost me 6 months. Then the next firm I hired admitted that they forgot about me for six months, and once I realized that I had been misplaced I made them assure me we were back on track. Empty promises. Again, I had to kick them in the ass and once we finally got to the depositions, 2 years 5 months later. At the deposition, they discovered a conflict of interest and dropped ME. I found out from a letter from the judge, the attorney never called me, never sent a letter to me or even sent an email to me.

After interviewing three other firms, I finally hired one that I think can handle this mess. Lets count the number of attorneys I have dealt with. The first firm; 3. The second firm; 4. I interviewed three more firms; 5. I hired the last firm; 2. The opposing firms:2. That is a total of 16 attorneys – so far.

It has taken almost three years to finally get to deposing me. To say that these attorneys are kind and understanding and just making sure we are all on the same page, is, well it is wrong. They are arrogant and belittling, they are threatening, literally. They are accusatory and abusive. They questioned my integrity and made innuendos of pain medication abuse.”

Now that I have set the stage here is the ‘rest of the story’.

We all see the numerous commercials about all of the major insurance companies. They all boast price, customer service and claims handling. What they never mention is how they handle a claim when they are the defendants. They can be, and in my experience, are predators. I have found that they will spend much more in defense than they would have to pay in settlement. I can only speculate as to why. The two companies that I am suing use the same law firms for all their defense in this region of the U.S. Both have abundant human resources and both of these attorneys have reputations as being assholes, which... they are.

That said, let me explain what MOST people don’t know. The insurance companies and their lobbyist have mutated the intent of the law.

Here is an example; if I even mention insurance companies in the trial the judge will immediately rule it a mistrial. The insurance company can investigate ALL ASPECTS OF MY LIFE and present it as evidence AGAINST ME even though I am the plaintiff. Yet I cannot even mention that there are insurance companies paying these two asshole attorneys and I can’t bring up anything about the defendants history.

Now HERE is the point of this article. We all perpetuate this crap by buying insurance without looking at how the insurance companies defend their clients. Yeah, I too want a ‘junkyard dog’ for an attorney if I need an attorney, but let’s fight fair!

I just replaced my insurance company because I found out they are just as bad as the two I am suing. The one I am now using has a good record of not being a predator when faced with a claim. I am not saying they will just pay for any claim, they are just a little bit more ethical in their battles.

And, YES, I abhor attorneys. They are self perpetuating and in my experience, personally and professionally, they are NOT people who I would choose to spend time around. I know quite a few due to my profession, but I DO NOT have any as clients because I will not take them as clients.

We are all being more careful about our buying habits in regard to the environment, so why not be more careful about who we hire as insurance companies and NOT perpetuate predatory practices.