After an accident victim has submitted a claim with the responsible party’s insurance company, the adjuster starts an investigation. Adjusters welcome the discovery of any fact that might suggest that the policyholder/defendant was not responsible for the accident.
Actions that might be taken by the victim’s lawyer
Personal Injury Lawyer in Kitchener may demand proof of the allegation, the charge that the law removes the defendant from responsibility for the victim’s injuries. That proof should take the form of a copy of whatever rule the adjuster has mentioned. A memo from the insurance company does not qualify as convincing proof.
An examination of the police report: Check to see if any statement in that report contradicts the tale that was given by the lawyer’s client (the accident victim). The adjuster might point to some statement that seems to support the adjuster’s argument. In the absence of any phrases that contradict the client, that single statement cannot serve as evidence that the defendant is not responsible for the client’s injuries.
Suppose that the police report is of limited help?
What could a lawyer do if the police report seemed to agree with the client’s story, but parts of the story did not have a clear agreement with the officially reported version? That would mean that the police report was of limited help.
Still, if there were no clear contradictions between what the cops had reported and what the client/victim had said, then the lawyer’s client would have no reason to drop his or her claim. In other words, the two parties would either try to reach a settlement, or end up facing each other in court.
Hence, the plaintiff-lawyer team would need to send a demand letter to the adjuster. The plaintiff’s demand would have to be a bit lower that it could have been, if the police report had proven more helpful. Naturally, the fact that the demand letter needed to be lower would make it almost inevitable for any settlement figure to be a bit less than what the plaintiff had hoped to enjoy.
Still, as long as the plaintiff/victim chose to insist that he or she did have a legitimate claim, the adjuster could not force the plaintiff to abandon his or her case. Consequently, the plaintiff’s chances for obtaining at least some money, as compensation, would not vanish.
Adjusters hope that a challenged lawyer will not pursue one or more of the actions listed above. Lawyers that do fight for their client’s rights obtain the most help from what a cop has reported. In other words, each of them helps some client to obtain at least some amount of money, as compensation for any accident-related medical expenses and any lost wages.