Beware of Big Insurance’s Cute Ads – Protect Your Injury Claim!

In this initial blog, I would like to take a moment to thank my staff, our clients, and our friends in the legal and greater community that have been instrumental in the successful launch of our new personal injury attorney law firm.  Resendez Law Group is fully up and running and managing the cases of our many valued clients!  Please call us if you’ve been injured in an accident or other incident by another person or object and you suspect negligence may have been the cause.  At Resendez Law Group, we specialize in personal injury cases (especially auto accident cases) and we offer an experienced, personal, and honest approach to helping you take on big insurance companies so that you obtain a greater recovery for your injuries, pain and suffering, and lost wages that result when you are involved in an auto accident or other injury incident.

So what’s with the title of this post?  Well, it’s simple really.  All of us watch TV to some extent and we’ve all seen the cute commercials from the insurance companies (I call them “big insurance”).  To be sure, big insurance’s advertising firms do a great job of creating catchy, cute commercials that cost many, many millions of dollars to create, and many more millions of dollars to show over and over again on national TV in the USA and elsewhere.  Thanks to big insurance’s million-dollar ad budgets, we’re all familiar with the cute lizard with the British accent, the husky voiced actor who wants to make us feel assured, and the actress who goes by the name “Flo” with the bright lipstick and seemingly helping hand for all who need insurance for whatever vehicle or business for which we might need coverage.  Big insurance can afford to do this for one simple reason.  The reason is that big insurance takes in so much more money (they call it revenue) from you and me every month, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade, through monthly premiums for auto, home and possibly other types of insurance coverage you may carry, than they ever pay out.

Now, making a profit is the American way right?  Sure!  But when you are unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident, you quickly reaslize that big insurance is not so cute after all.  In fact, oftentimes big insurance can be deceptive and flat out rotten to deal with.  BEWARE!  If you are unfortunate enough to be injured in an auto accident or other injury incident, ALWAYS assume that big insurance’s typical initial actions when responding to your possible auto accident or other injury claim are NOT to pay you a fair amount for your injuries, pain and suffering, and possibly other losses.  Instead, DO assume that big insurance will always act in their own best interest, which means that they will attempt to pay you the absolute least amount they can, and even nothing if possible, for your claim.  That is one major reason you should call Resendez Law Group at (602) 824-9444 for help with your auto accident or other personal injury claim not only in the greater Phoenix area that includes Glendale, Peoria, Avondale, Goodyear, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek, but also other areas anywhere in the State of Arizona.

At this point you might be wondering what those actions of big insurance actually are that would lead me to blog about them?  Among other things, here is a short, quick list of a few that I see often, especially for people who are involved in an auto accident or other injury incident in the Phoenix area who delay or fail to hire an auto accident/injury attorney:

1. Delays by big insurance to accept liability on behalf of their insured in an auto accident in which you are injured. This means you can be left without a vehicle, if you don’t have rental coverage on your own policy, for days if not weeks while big insurance takes its time to “investigate” the accident before determining that their insured is liable.  In some cases a delay might be appropriate, as in the case where liability isn’t clear cut.  But oftentimes, it isn’t.  A delay also means your vehicle might be stored in a tow yard racking up storage fees of $20 or more per day unnecessarily which big insurance may argue it is not responsible to pay, or which they may take their sweet time to reimburse you for.   One other note, not everyone can rent a vehicle for whatever reason and these people tend to suffer the greatest inconvenience during such delays.
2. Virtually immediate phone calls to the injured victim of an auto accident or other injury incident.  Time and time again, clients who were not aware of the need to contact an injury attorney at Resendez Law Group (or another attorney) immediately after the accident unknowingly accept phone calls soon thereafter from the at-fault party’s big insurance company and speak with big insurance’s savvy insurance adjusters about the auto accident or other injury incident.  These adjusters are highly trained professionals who attempt to extract information from those good but unfortunate people who have been injured in auto accidents or other injury incidents.  In fact, a common tactic is to be super nice to the injured victim, as if they are your friend, while they attempt to obtain information from you through recorded statements that they ultimately will try to use against you to reduce the value of your case!  DO NOT give a recorded statement if you’ve been injured in an auto accident or other injury incident.  Call Resendez Law Group first and we’ll help you avoid the pitfalls others so easily fall into when attempting to discuss their claims with big insurance’s adjusters.
3. Big insurance commonly makes ridiculously low offers to settle your legitimate auto accident or other injury incident.  Unless you spend ample time in the personal injury field, you probably have very limited actual knowledge of the value of an auto accident or other personal injury case.  In all honestly, there is no magical formula and no two cases are exactly alike.  However, when you contact an injury attorney at Resendez Law Group for your auto accident or other personal injury claim, we will work honestly with you to provide inputs as to a range of possible case values for which your claim might settle based on the available information regarding your claim.  But BEWARE of accepting big insurance’s offer to settle your claim without the aid of an experienced auto accident or other injury incident attorney who can provide this highly valuable and critical service.  Big insurance gets away with paying thousands less than they should when they use their training and skills against unwary victims who simply don’t know better and settle their claims for much less than they deserve.  Please beware of low-ball offers and call Resendez Law Group for help.  In virtually every case, we’ll get you greater compensation for your claim even after allowing for attorney fees, medical provider bills, and any other costs that come out of the settlement.  There is virtually no risk to you as you pay nothing until we settle your case in most cases.  I cannot emphasize how critical it is to contact an attorney for help with your auto accident or other personal injury claim, especially for serious accidents, injuries and wrongful death claims.

I’ll close this blog with my own recent experience that drives these points home.  The facts of the case are simply.  An individual rear ended my vehicle while stopped on a local freeway.  It was a good jolt to my body that resulted in immediate headaches and neck pain, and about $4,000 in property damage to the interior “crumple zones” of my vehicle even though it was hardly scratched from all outwardly visible signs of the rear bumper.  Unfortunately, the party that hit me did not have insurance and I was forced to file a claim with my own insurance company under the Uninsured Motorist coverage on my policy (I highly recommend you carry this for piece of mind).  Very shortly thereafter, my big insurance company that I had been with for many years contacted me and offered me $250 above any medical bills I incurred to settle my claim!  This was before I had even visited the doctor!!!  Now, how in the world did big insurance arrive at that offer figure?  How did they know I didn’t have a concussion or other more severe injury that would sideline me from my practice for days, weeks and even months?   They didn’t!  But they were more than happy to cut me a check for a minimal amount of money to be done with my claim.  Ultimately, I settled the claim for many times that amount but the main point is that big insurance will attempt to use their training to minimize, and even avoid altogether, what they pay for your auto accident or other personal injury claim.  If they did that to me knowing I am an accident attorney, imagine what they routinely do with people who have little or no experience in managing auto accident or other personal injury claims?  Bottom line, beware of big insurance’s carefully and expensively crafted cutesy images portrayed on TV and radio.  If you are involved in an auto accident or other personal injury incident in the greater Phoenix area or in other parts of the State of Arizona, call Resendez Law Group at (602) 824-4444.  We can help you 24×7 and you’ll normally speak directly with an attorney on your initial call.