1. What happens to the person, persons
or company who caused my injury?
After the incident which caused your injury, the person, persons
or company that you claim may be responsible for your injury are
contacted by the insurance company. Either the person who caused
your injury or a representative of the company who caused your injury
gives statements and reports to the appropriate insurance claims
adjuster. Such statements and reports are probably recorded and
there are most likely written reports or transcripts of such statements.
After the insurance company's initial investigation,
there is usually little or no contact between the tortfeasors
(the person, persons or company who caused your injury) and the
insurance company. In other words, the insurance representative
usually does not keep the insured advised about the day to day
progress in the case. An exception may be medical malpractice
cases. Therefore, the person, persons or company who caused your
injury is probably going on with their daily lives, hopeful that
the case will simply be settled by the insurance company with
little or no involvement on their part.
2. What happens
to the person who caused my injury if the case does not settle?
If the case does not settle between you, your lawyer and the insurance
company and proceeds to litigation (lawsuit), the insurance carrier
will again contact the insured. An attorney hired by the insurance
company will be assigned to defend and represent the tortfeasor,
whether the tortfeasor is a person, persons or company. The insured
will be required to participate in the litigation process and
will be required to cooperate with the attorney assigned.
It is important to remember that if a lawsuit
becomes necessary, it will be brought against the tortfeasor and
not against the insurance carrier, even though the insurance carrier
will probably be the one to pay the settlement or verdict.
3. What if
the tortfeasor was untruthful or not accurate about how the incident
happened?
Unfortunately, in many cases, the person or persons responsible
for the incident may not tell the complete truth about the incident.
It is human nature for many people to deny liability, fault or
blame even in cases where negligence or wrong-doing was obvious.
Your lawyer has had many cases where the tortfeasors believe their
insured or the insured's witnesses and will deny your claim. In
such cases a lawsuit becomes necessary and the case will proceed
to litigation and sometimes all the way to trial.
In most cases, however, the truth eventually
surfaces and the claim will get settled one way or the other.
Your lawyer will investigate your claim in the hope of obtaining
witnesses, evidence, facts and law that support the truth of how
the incident happened.
4. Can I contact the person or
persons who are responsible for my injuries?
Again, ABSOLUTELY NOT! If you contact the person or persons responsible,
you could jeopardize settlement of your case. Remember that any
statement you make, even an innocent comment, could be used against
you or misinterpreted. It is not appropriate for you to contact
the tortfeasor even if the tortfeasor has not told the truth about
how the incident occurred.
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