Something Seems Fishy
I want to talk about a topic that comes up a lot with people I talk to. The question or the topic is, if something seems fishy in the way your company or the insurance company is handling your injury case, you probably have good reason to be suspicious. If things seem fishy, they are fishy.
What do I mean by that? Well let me tell you a story about a guy who worked for the same company for a long time. Never got hurt on the job, really good worker. But he knew up front that his company was very hostile to workers comp cases, but he never had a beef, he never got hurt on the job and half in his head thought "Oh well if they are claiming their back hurt, they're probably full of it and the company should give them a hard time".
Want To Know Your Injury Case Value? Calculate What Your Case Is Worth For Free...
Everybody's Attitude Changed
Well of course, the world being round and Murphy's law being what it is. He ended up getting hurt on the job and a pretty serious back injury. This was a high employee, this is a guy that they really depended on. He worked there for like 20 something years and the minute he got hurt, everybody's attitude towards him changed. He thought he was going nuts, and he thought maybe he was imagining it, or being overly sensitive. But they were doing all kinds of stuff like making little comments, having conversations that they would end when he walked up.
They sort of changed his job duties, suddenly he wasn't getting first pick of overtime. Things were changing for him and he was becoming very suspicious. The HR lady started out friendly and then got real aggressive. This is what i told him, a lot of times a company will start out nice. Whether they're nice to you or whether they're being aggressive with you, if your instincts are that something isn't quite right, then things probably aren't quite right.
Things Are Suspicious
Things are probably suspicious. Your instincts are basically picking up on that. On verbal and nonverbal visual cues and their behavior. 99 percent of the time, when this thing starts to happen, your instincts are correct. They're positioning you in a work injury case to kind of work you over. A lot of times what they'll do is, they'll be nice to you at the beginning so you don't even think about hiring a lawyer. You're like "oh I'll just go to the company doctor, I'll treat with their people, everything will be fine.".
Well a worker's comp case, like any injury case, is a bit of a chess match. And they know they've played chess before and you never have. They're a chess master and you just started playing chess, or maybe you played it once or twice and they've been playing it their whole life. In fact, it's their career. So they're gonna out fox you. And if the hairs in the back of your neck are standing up, and you feel like something's not quite, my best advice to you is to talk to a lawyer.
Insurance Company Won't Cooperate
Now I also had this happen in a car crash case. Real nice older guy got into a car crash, had a car accidents before, was always able years ago to just pick up the phone talk to the insurance company. No problem. Well this time, completely opposite. He thought he was being very reasonable, very nice. The car insurance after his crash completely put him through the ringer like at first they were aggressively calling him "well we need this document, we need that document, we need this, we need that.".
He complied with all of it and then all of a sudden, he couldn't get them on the phone. He told me he called them probably a dozen times and they just wouldn't call him back. And then they sent him a letter saying that he's not cooperating with them. So for him that was the last straw and he called me and hired me to handle his case. And the name of the auto insurance company who did it is a big one, and the name might surprise you.
Your Best Protection Is To Get An Attorney
Honestly, that's something for you to think about. Even if it's a name brand insurance company that you've heard of before, does not necessarily mean they're going to treat you fairly. Again, they know how all this works and if you don't, your best protection is to get a free consultation from an attorney.
Now obviously, I make money representing people. My preference is you call me, no big surprise there. But whether it's me or someone else, most injury lawyers give a free consultation. But if you'd like a free consultation from me, I have a 24 hour phone number, you can call me anytime night or day.
