Many people assume that they pay for insurance so they will have someone on their side to fight for them when they become injured. However, this can also mean that when you are injured (due to an accident, malpractice, or another reason) that you find yourself in court after filing a claim (essentially) against another insurance company.
This may be especially true in the case of medical malpractice. If you file a claim against a medical professional on the grounds of malpractice, this medical professional may have medical malpractice liability insurance. Their insurance provider will work hard to nullify your malpractice claim in any way they can. This is one of the reasons that hiring the best medical malpractice lawyers will help you win your malpractice case.
1. Manipulating a recorded statement
In and of itself, taking a recorded statement is not a trick. Insurance companies for both parties will want to take and record a statement from all parties involved with the malpractice, usually the medical professional, the patient, and any other medical staff who were intimately involved with treating the patient.
This is an effective method for insurance agents to preserve a record of what each party believes occurred. This statement can be useful in the future to help them prove that the person they insured was either only partially at fault or even not at fault at all.
This initial statement is important, and you should consult with your legal counsel before giving your statement to any insurance company. You legal counsel can help you plan what to say and will make sure you are laying out the truth. Issues can arise if you appear in your statement to downplay the effects of the suffering you have felt after being the victim of this malpractice.
As one of the parts of a successful malpractice claim is being able to prove the damages done to you and your life as a result of malpractice, an insurance company could take your statement out of context in an attempt to prove that their client did not actually harm you to the extent that you claim they did.
2. Pointing the finger at another cause
Insurance companies are very skilled at trying to suggest something that interrupts your line of correlation that connects your problem to their client. For example, if you claim that negligence on behalf of a medical professional led you to experience stomach pain, the doctor’s insurance company may try and prove that your stomach pain did not actually arise as a result of their client’s actions.
They may try and say that your pain is due to an injury you sustained, or that it arose because of a change in your diet or a genetic predisposition. They will work hard to make it so that your claim of harm cannot be traced to their client.
They also may try to use evidence of your actions on social media to show that your damage is less serious than you are claiming in court. They can bring pictures of you enjoying time out with family and friends and show you are making a false claim simply to seek compensation from their client.
3. Arguing about a lack of medical care after the incident
The insurance company working on behalf of the medical provider you are accusing of malpractice could even take the position that in the time since you claim the malpractice happened, you have not sought sufficient medical attention.
They can make the claim that your condition only worsened to its current state because you did not seek out the correct preventative care measures at the outset, which transfers the onus of liability from their client to you and rids their client of the blame for the full legal definition of medical malpractice.
Final thoughts
Seeking expert legal counsel to help you deal with any potentially manipulative insurance companies is a key first step to moving forward with your medical malpractice claim.
