If you have been involved in a car accident and have started some form of personal injury claim, chances are the insurance company will hire defence lawyers. These lawyers, and the tactics used by the insurance companies in these kinds of cases, are luckily quite predictable.

First, chances are that both the defence lawyers as well as the insurance companies are hoping that injury victims are not truthful. The reason being, insurers frequently get pre-existing medical records. This means that they already know what kind of health problems someone had before the car accident. They just want to ask the person under oath to see if they can catch the injury victim in a lie.

Secondly, the insurance company will usually hire private investigators to surveil the injury victim. The detectives usually continue to surveil the injury victim until they get what they feel is “good stuff.” For example, someone working when they claim they cannot work. Or someone lifting heavy objects when they say they are unable to. The key is to be honest so that insurers can do all the surveillance they want but it still won’t show the injury victim lied.

Third, insurers frequently try to delay the progression of the case. The reason being, if the insurer delays, there is a high chance that someone will be involved in a second accident. If this occurs, the insurer can try to suggest that an injury victim’s problems relate to the second accident, for which they are not responsible. Insurers also try to delay in order to put financial pressure on injury victims to want to settle for low amounts.

Fourth, insurers will try to get injury victims to claim that their medical records are not accurate. That is, an insurer will try to get an injured person to claim that they told their doctor something, knowing that there is no such mention in the medical records. The insurer will then try to suggest the injured person never really told their doctor what they are claiming to have told the doctor.

If you have been involved in a serious personal injury, it is important to contact personal injury lawyers.

Obtaining compensation for serious injuries is similar to playing chess. What are the similarities? Well, in both situations, there are tactics (or short term plays) which are executed in an effort to win (in chess, the object is to checkmate the king; in a personal injury case, the object is to receive the maximum compensation). The major difference is that in chess games, the end result is usually not too important. In personal injury cases, the end result can be the most important thing in that injury victim’s life.

So what are the tactics? First, there is the insurance company’s tactic of delay. Delay is a very strong tactic for three reasons. First, insurance companies know that if they delay an accident victim’s case long enough, it is more likely that the injury victim will accept a lower amount since they will more likely be in greater need of money. Second, by delaying a payout, insurers get to earn money on injury victim’s payouts for longer periods of time. Third, it is more likely that a negative intervening event (such as a second car accident occurs), so that the insurer can say that the injuries being advocated by the personal injury lawyer are not related to the lawsuit in question.

Second, another tactic is when the personal injury lawyer does not admit liability. Frequently, insurers will offer to admit liability (which means they admit fault), in return for the claim by the personal injury lawyer to be limited to the policy limits. While this might sound good (after all, why shouldn’t the insurer admit liability when their client rear ended someone in a car accident), it is frequently not a good tactic for the personal injury lawyer to accept this deal. The reason is that if the personal injury lawyer accepts this deal, he or she will not be able to argue the almost guaranteed winning point that his/her client is not at fault. For instance, could you imagine how ridiculous an insurance company’s defence lawyer will look to a juror when he/she tries to argue that the defendant is not at fault for a car accident when the defendant rear ended the injury victim’s car.

Third, another tactic used by an insurance company is to use leading questions when questioning an injury victim in an examination called a discovery. For instance, during questioning, instead of asking a person if he/she was injured as a result of the car accident, the question might be something like, “I guess you didn’t have to go by ambulance because the injury wasn’t so serious?” This invites the injury victim to agree with this loaded question. (Personal injury lawyer hopefully warns their injured clients about these kinds of leading questions.)

Fourth, surveillance is a tactic frequently used to discredit an injury victim. For instance, the insurance company may hire an investigator to follow someone for days, months or years to try to get footage that suggests a person is able to do a vigorous or athletic activity. They will then use leading questions to try to get an injury victim to agree that he/she is unable to do something (for example, gardening) after the car accident. Then, the insurer will use the surveillance to contradict the injured person’s testimony to suggest the injury victim should not be believed about anything at all.

It is important that a personal injury lawyer is familiar with the possible tactics used in personal injury cases such as car accidents in order to prevent insurers from minimizing seriously injured people’s claims.

We know how complicated critical illness insurance policies and claims can be. Even the most comprehensive policies may contain restrictions, complex terms and stringent procedures. It’s not always simple to understand and claim your allowable benefit.

Many Canadians are opting for critical illness insurance to bridge gaps in their health insurance coverage. Common worries include expensive drugs not being covered by medical plans and being able to pay for additional expenses such as rehabilitation costs or a spouse having to leave work to provide care.

The question is, is it worth the cost? The Toronto Star takes a closer look concluding that critical illness insurance can be worth it but you really have to understand how it works or you could be in for a nasty shock when a claim is submitted.

Glenn Cooke, a life insurance broker who runs Life Insurance Canada.com, explains that “Critical illness insurance is a great product but you have to understand the risks you are insuring and the exclusions.”

Here are three important things to know about critical illness insurance:

1. You can end up paying a lot in premiums just in case you develop a limited number of conditions listed on the policy.
2. An illness you think is covered may not meet the policy definition.
3. A return of premium rider is a costly add-on that could double your monthly premiums and getting your money back is not a slam dunk.

You can read more about it here.

If you or someone you know has been denied Critical Illness insurance benefits, our expert critical illness insurance claim lawyer can help you.

If you have been injured and have a personal injury case to resolve with the insurance company, your physician has lot to do with the outcome of your case.

Insurance companies frequently portray someone as not truly injured because they never saw their family doctor. So visit your family physician as soon as possible as afterwards this will help secure valuable early evidence. Family physicians are trained in all areas of medicine and can diagnose, provide treatment, write prescriptions and refer you to specialists for further investigation or treatment if necessary. They work with a health team that includes nurses, nurse practitioners, dieticians and pharmacists, ensuring you benefit from the skill sets and perspectives of diverse practitioners who collaborate to give you the best care.

The family physician will undoubtedly play an important role as you work through your treatment and rehabilitation, regularly monitoring your progress and keeping your legal representative up to date with valuable medical reports. The physician will document the type and severity of injury-related symptoms, so regular visits will help compile a more detailed and potentially favorable claim.

Do not let there be a large gaps in treatment. You treatment records are evidence. Any indication that you were not interested in recovering properly, could negatively impact a claim. This means that people should not hold in their injury related problems but rather be open and truthful about them to their doctors.

Your family physician may also serve as a reliable witness on any psychological or emotional effects an injury has had, particularly in cases of longer relationships.

The voted best accident lawyers at Mazin & Associates, PC, Personal Injury Lawyers have helped thousands of clients and have worked with family physicians and medical specialists to compile the most comprehensive and persuasive cases possible.

From car accident cases to slip and falls, you may have suffered an injury as a result of someone else’s negligence. Many people are reluctant to hire a lawyer for injuries that appear relatively minor in nature. In many circumstances, this could be a big mistake and you may lose valuable compensation.

Injury lawyers may assist you with your physical, psychological and financial recovery following an accident. Here are a few reasons why you might consider hiring a lawyer for seemingly minor injuries.

Your Injuries may Worsen:

What appears to at least initially be a minor injury may with time reveal a more serious or even permanent impairment. Furthermore, many injuries may not be immediately visible. You may feel additional or new symptoms, both physical and psychological, weeks or even months after the accident. As a result you may incur additional medical or rehabilitation expenses beyond what you initially anticipated. This is one of the most important reasons to talk to a personal injury lawyer as s/he will advise you to wait until you know the full extent of your injuries. This can also help you to determine the right time to accept a settlement offer for your claim.

Negotiating with Insurance Companies:

Another common reason why people do not hire a personal injury lawyer is because they believe that their insurance company is there to help them. But insurance companies are interested in minimizing payouts so that they can maximize their profit margins. It is important to understand that insurance companies, like many other corporations, respond to business incentives and in the case of a personal injury claim, these incentives are at odds with what the interest of the claimant or plaintiff. For this reason, it is critical that you retain a personal injury lawyer so that you can obtain fair compensation for your losses. It is important to have an experienced personal injury lawyer representing your best interests, who can negotiate strongly with insurance companies on your behalf.

Some people may not hire a lawyer for fear of paying large legal fees. But at Mazin & Associates, PC, Personal Injury Lawyers, we work on a contingency-fee basis. This means that you will not pay for any legal fees unless you win your case. To arrange a free consultation, call (416) 625-2122 or visit our website.

A dashboard camera is a camera that is placed on your wind shield or dashboard and is continuously recording everything that happens while you are driving your car. More advanced versions of the cameras can also record rear views; some are even equipped with infra-red sensors to enable recordings in the dark too. The main purpose of using this type of camera is to record exactly what happened in the event of a car accident.

When your car accident claim evolves into a full-blown dispute, dashboard cameras are becoming a popular way for careful drivers to verify that they were not at fault after an accident. Any video you provide must be of good enough quality to clearly show the third party. A dashboard camera can be a useful tool since it is sometimes difficult to explain or recall exactly what happened during the accident. A dashboard cam will be there to contribute to find out the truth. So, when an accident occurs, it may be easier for you to prove not only that the other person was at fault, but how he or she violated the law.

There are three organizations that would probably benefit the most from such a device being used by consumers: injured individuals, insurers and law enforcement. This is because a dash cam can greatly contribute to the resolution of traffic accidents and claims.

Some of the insurance companies have their own policies whether dashboard camera footage will even be considered, if at all. Some of the major insurance companies have yet to set an official policy regarding how they review and use dashboard camera footage. The insurance company could choose to consider it if they think it would help, but they are not always required to. However, Car Accident Lawyers, Mazin & Associates, PC would know how to evaluate such a video and determine if it can be made admissible. To find out how we can help you after your accident, call us at (416) 625-2122.

Your claim might be strengthened from the dashboard camera footage and might potentially reduce the time that is needed to settle your case. Although dashboard camera footage is not always conclusive evidence of what happened during the accident, it can be very helpful.