Learn about 6 ways that insurance companies may use to destroy your case and minimize the claim - http://derekwilsonlaw.ca/six-ways-insurance-companies-try-to-destroy-your-case/

1. Six Ways Insurance
Companies Try To
Destroy Your Case

2. Insurance companies are not charities, and if
you’re injured in a car accident or another way,
the insurance company is always going to try to
minimize your claim.
I worked defense for the insurance companies for
many years, thus I know firsthand how insurance
companies try to minimize how much they’ll
eventually have to pay you…

3. 1.Reporting Inconsistencies:
Insurance companies will literally cross reference
everything you say at a discovery (a meeting
where they ask you lots of questions) against your
doctor’s medical reports in an effort to find
inconsistencies.
For example, let’s say you tell the insurance
company’s lawyer that you had headaches since
your accident, however, your doctor failed to
write it down, thus it’s not in the reports.

4. You certainly aren’t lying to anyone, but the fact
that it’s not mentioned in the medical reports
looks suspect nonetheless. This why I tell my
clients to not only report everything to their
doctor, but to ask their doctor to write it down.
When you are in the midst of a case, you must let
your doctor know the importance of writing down
every little thing. Too much information is better
than too little.

5. 2. Your Pre-Accident Medical Or Psychiatric
History:
This can be touchy. I tell my clients to pretend
that the insurance company already has the
answers to everything that’s happened to you
available to them (for the most part, they do.)
They will go back around 3-5 years before your
accident and take a close look at both your
physical and psychiatric history. Is there anything
there that could decrease the amount of earning
potential you would have had before the accident?

6. This is tough because often clients will forget
about things that happened to them.
Again, it’s not a matter of lying, but sometimes
we simply do not wish to rehash painful issues.
For example, if a client suffered from depression
due to a rape, or perhaps drank a lot of alcohol in
school, the insurance company will bring these
issues up. Ditto for physical issues. If you hurt
your back in 2009, I want to hear it from you so
we can get ahead of it.

7. Otherwise the insurance company who will say, “Well you
didn’t tell us you had back pain before, so you could be
lying now…”
3. Income Reporting:
If you claim you made $54k last year, and the insurance
company looks at your T4 and finds out you only reported
$35k, your case will be in immediate jeopardy.
This situation is not as uncommon as it sounds.
Many contractors get paid in cash and don’t always claim
it. So if they ask you if you’re reported all of your income
to the CRA and you haven’t, you’d better speak up. To
many, this sounds like ‘out of the frying pan and into the
fire’, but not so.

8. The insurance company can’t call revenue Canada;
it’s improper and illegal, so in this case, the truth
doesn’t hurt. It’s better to be as up front as possible
(although admitting you lied to the CRA is still going
to hinder your credibility, so really it’s just better to
be honest with everyone.)
Continuity of Treatment:
Sometimes people get caught up with their lives and
don’t make time for medical treatments like
physiotherapy. This can be an issue.
A defense lawyer may say, “Well, you only went to
therapy for three months so it couldn’t have been
THAT bad.”

9. Of course, we know that it doesn’t mean you only
had pain for only three months, but it does cast a
shadow over that certainty.
If you have an approved medical treatment that is
recommended by your doctor, you have to use it!
There are times where your healing will plateau so
you may not feel it’s worth the time and effort to go
to treatment, but that’s up to you doctor to assess.
Until that happens, if you don’t attend treatment, it
will raise questions about how injured you really are.

10. 4. No Mention Of Injuries In The First
Responder’s Report:
When you have an accident, you’re probably not
thinking about calling a lawyer or starting a case.
You’re thinking about yourself of course!
But here’s the thing, ambulance attendants are really
good at putting down just one complaint. It’s not fair
to you because you’ve just had an accident and are
probably too shocked and anxious to answer their
questions thoughtfully. Yet, if you they ask you if
your back hurts, for example, and you say ‘no’, then
they will mark off that it’s not a problem.

11. The ER physician will do the same. When your back
is in agony the next day, your insurance company will
look first to those initial reports and jump on the fact
that you didn’t mention it at the time and make the
assumption that it couldn’t have been THAT bad if
you didn’t tell anyone.
What the first responders record is important. You
can’t control what they’re going to write, but the
more you share the better.
If you didn’t go to the hospital right after your
accident, make sure you see your family doctor soon
afterwards.

12. The information provided in your medical records
will ultimately make or break your case so see your
doctor and tell them everything no matter how
insignificant at the time it may seem.
5. Using Surveillance Against You:
This is a big one that really freaks out my clients but
I always give the same advice: As long as you’re
telling the truth, let them use surveillance; you have
nothing to hide.
You have to be smart when you’re in the midst of a
case. For example, if you say you’re unable to cut
your grass, then don’t cut your grass.

13. There may be a day where you give it a shot to see if
you can, and you’re in pain when you do it. Of
course, that will be the day the insurance company
gets a video of you cutting your grass and waving to
your neighbour with a friendly smile, five minutes
before you gave up and retreated back to the couch in
pain. But the damage is done.
Another common example is when you say you can’t
do your job, but post public pictures of yourself on
social media dancing at you brother’s wedding.

14. Well, perhaps the injury that precludes you from
working has nothing to do with your ability to dance,
but the insurance company will present it very
differently.
Be 100% honest and over communicate.
If you tried to cut the grass but couldn’t, report back
to your doctor and to me that you tried but you
couldn’t.

15. Or, if you couldn’t cut the grass but then tried and
found it was manageable, that’s a change that must
be reported. Reporting these little things will
invalidate any surveillance the insurance company
presents.
http://derekwilsonlaw.ca