So if you’re wondering why an insurer may not pay you compensation, or wondering whether they will believe your claim, here is a little advice about the way insurers think and what reasons they may use to try and stop you from receiving compensation.
Firstly, if there is evidence that could be used in their favour to try and defend a claim, they will rely upon it. Even if it is weak they may still rely upon it because a lot of courts nowadays are more in the favour of Defendants than Claimants. That’s a bold statement, but it is my personal opinion. Also, most people don’t want to go to court. Whilst most cases are settled outside of court, we can never guarantee whether you may need to attend or not. Insurers can use the fact that you may be shy or nervous about court action to their advantage. If you don’t look credible in court, the Judge is likely to side with your opponent.
Secondly, if they feel they can discredit you, they will discredit you. If for example you were intoxicated then you tripped over a pothole, they will allege you fell purely because you were drunk. Even if you would have fallen if you were sober, they will still use it as an excuse to either limit your payment or not pay you at all. Sometimes this argument from the insurers is hard to defeat. We have even seen arguments were a driver has pulled out a driver from a side road (and is therefore clearly at fault) try to defend a claim because the driver proceeding correctly was over the limit. There is no excuse for drink driving, but insurers will use anything they can to their advantage.
They will also try and discredit you if they see your medical records. If they see that you have had a previous similar injury for example, they may allege that this accident is merely an offshoot of a pre-existing injury, making them not fully liable.
Thirdly, they will stop at nothing to limit or stop a payout if you are seriously injured. A serious injury claim can naturally result in the insurers having to pay tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation, so they will try and reduce it as much as possible. They may defend the claim outright or try and reduce your payout by alleging you were partly to blame; something known as contributory negligence.
Don’t take it personally – insurers are there to limit payouts and keep their profit margins high as their duty is to their shareholders. What you need to be confident of is that you have an injury lawyer like us with years and years of specialist personal injury experience to fight your corner.