Insurance companies have all kinds of tricks up their sleeves and they regularly look for ways to deny insurance claims.   Besides being difficult to work with, insurers have been known to delay claim payments, dispute medical treatment and nickel and dime medical charges.  As if that weren’t enough, insurance companies often use a variety of arguments to justify a lowball settlement offer or a denied claim.

If you have been hurt in a Virginia car accident, don’t be surprised if you hear the insurance company make one of the following arguments to validate a low payment or even deny your claim:

1.    You were not using a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
2.    Your vehicle had some type of defective equipment.
3.    You were intoxicated or impaired by legal or illegal drugs.
4.    You didn’t see the other driver run the red light, so it’s your fault that you were hit.
5.    You are not credible because you exaggerated some issue relating to the accident.

Ben Glass mentions these common arguments in his book, Five Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Injury Claim.  In his book, he also talks about the fact that when it comes to information sharing with insurance companies, it is a one-way street.  You might provide the information they need, but when you ask them questions, they may not give you straight answers.

Order your copy of Five Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Injury Claim. The book is free to Virginia residents.

Virginia personal injury attorney Ben Glass had just published, in response to demand from consumers, a guide to handling your own personal injury case.

The guide is being made available so that those who wish to try to handle their case without a board certified attorney can do so.

31 Tips to Handling Your Own Virginia Personal Injury Case is available here.

When a Virginia personal injury case goes to trial, the jurors will be listening to the arguments made on both sides.  Jurors tend to have a lot of questions during a personal injury lawsuit.

One of the first questions usually asked by jurors during trial is if the defendant is insured.  The answer is almost always yes and the attorney representing him or her is paid for by the insurance company.  Most of the time, no one is expecting that the defendant will pay anything out of his or her own pocket.

Another question commonly asked by jurors is whether or not the plaintiff had health coverage to pay the bills.  Many times a plaintiff will have some expenses paid for through medical insurance, but in today’s economy a lot of people have let their policies lapse.  Also, the plaintiff generally has to repay the health benefit plan if money is awarded in the lawsuit.

The plaintiff typically has to pay the fee when a doctor is called to testify, which can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000.  Doctors charge these fees just to show up at court, because they are taking time away from their practices.  When the defendant has a doctor testify, the cost is paid for by the insurer.

Once the jury reaches a verdict, it is very rare that the judge makes changes.  Appeals do not happen often.