A Personal Injury Lawyer in St John’s does not look for accidents, in hopes of adding to his or her caseload. The lawyer’s experience has shown that the insurance purchased by a plaintiff or a defendant can play a role in how a given case gets decided.
What an accident victim should do before filing a personal injury claim?
• If the accident was a motor vehicle collision, check to see if the other driver had some type of car insurance.
• If the accident took the form of a slip and fall incident, check to see if the property owner had liability coverage.
• If the victim had suffered a dog bite, check to see if the dog’s owner had purchased homeowner’s insurance.
• If the defendant lacks the needed coverage, the accident victim may need to use his or her health insurance policy.
The factors that motivate the actions of an insurance company
If, after using its formula, an insurance company suspects that a jury would issue a costly verdict, after hearing one accident victim’s case, then it might feel motivated to settle. Yet an insurance company tends to feel persuaded by such factors, if the policy holder has only the bare minimum, in the way of liability insurance. Some policy holders have purchased a more expensive and extensive policy.
If an accident victim has sizable liability coverage, that usually means that the insurance company’s adjuster has lots of funds to work with. When adjusters have access to a large amount of money, the motivation to settle vanishes. In the absence of that motivation, negotiations might go on for some time.
Eventually, the insurance company could be forced to go to trial. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury might issue the feared verdict, asking that the insurer pay a large amount of money to the plaintiff. Of course, insurance companies always have a right to appeal a jury’s decision. In other words, insurance companies can influence the outcome for a personal injury case in more than one way.
Sometimes an insurer does not bother with appealing a jury’s decision. If the company’s bank account does not match with the jury’s demand, the insurer could claim bankruptcy. Then the plaintiff would not get the expected award.
That last possibility really shines the limelight on the insurer’s ability to deflate a plaintiff’s hopes. A plaintiff might anticipate the receipt of a large award, after hearing the jury’s verdict. On the other hand, the same plaintiff might learn that the defendant in a given lawsuit has used a legal loophole to get out of making the expected payment. So, even after a decision is made, , an insurer can affect the outcome.