Dirtiest Trick That Insurance Companies Do
What is the number one dirty trick defense that defense lawyers and insurance companies play on every injured person in every injury case. I can basically guarantee you that if you got hurt on the job, or got hurt in a car crash, fall down, nursing home abuse, medical malpractice, no matter what kind of case you got hurt where there's an injury. They are going to use this dirty trick.
Why do they use it? Because it's effective. And I think some lawyers know this and even a lot of the lawyers who I know, understand this. They don't do enough to defend the case against it and protect their client against it. So here's the dirty trick, they call you a liar and show that you're a liar without ever calling you a liar. What do I mean? Well here's one that's super common.
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Paramedic Or ER Report
I had a lady who got hurt, hit her head but it wasn't primarily a head injury. She banged her knee and ended up having knee surgery, but she also hit her head in the accident and that's what she said. When they asked us what parts of the body she hurt, we ordered the medical records. Guess what? The paramedics wrote in the paramedic report that the patient denies striking her head or any head pain or loss of consciousness. Then in the emergency room said, complains of headache, denies striking head.
Deny Your Claim Of Pain
However, what really happened is she did strike her head, so when the case went to trial that's what they focused on. They called the paramedic as a witness and they called the doctor at the ER as a witness, and the doctor and paramedic, they helped thousands of people a year. So if a defense attorney asks them whether this patient in particular told you that they hit their head? Well the paramedic or doctors just going to look at the record and if there's nothing in there about them hitting their head or if they deny hitting their head, the doctor or paramedics going to say no, they never reported hitting their head.
Well they don't know. They don't remember. They only take down what's life-threatening in a paramedic report or in an ER report. That's one example of how insurance companies and defense attorneys take little details out of the case and try to buildup something serious. You may be listening to that example and say, look man, if I was on the jury or if I was the judge in that case and somebody tried to defend the case that way, I would be like, "look man, that's not cool".
They Line Up Details
Remember they don't actually come out and call the injured person a liar. What they do is they line up six or ten or twelve little details like that. So when you're on the witness stand, they're going to ask you,
"Okay so you had six months of physical therapy after your surgery, is that correct?". So then they're going to ask you, "What was your pain level at the beginning? was it four out of ten? six out of ten? eight out of ten? okay what about the next?"
Inaccuracy Of Medical Records
I'm gonna tell you like I've been doing this for 20 years. I have never seen a set of medical records where at every visit, they document the parts of the body and the pain levels accurately. Especially at therapy centers or at hospitals where you're seeing different nurses or at clinics where you're seeing different nurses and doctors.
These guys, there's some subjectivity there. What they decide to write is based on what they think is the most serious. The problem is, if they're sloppy record keepers and they don't document something it could easily look like:
Visit one - you're complaining about your back, visit two - you're complaining of your neck in your back, visit three - you're just complaining of headaches, visit four - just your back, visit five - your neck and headaches, visit six - just your back, next visit just your back, then all of a sudden you're complaining of neck.
Faulty Record-Keeping
I don't know if this is really coming across right. But I'm gonna tell you, defense attorneys and insurance companies are experts at taking those sorts of bad record-keeping, or faulty record-keeping. What's the doctor or nurse or physical therapy going to say? Are they going to say "well I'm a crappy record keeper"? You'll never get him to admit that, even if it's true. Since they have no independent memory, all they can do is testify off what's in the medical records.
They Call You A Liar Without Actually Calling You Are A Liar
What they do is, one or two of these things doesn't seem like a big deal. But if they can string together like six or eight of them, that becomes their whole defense in the case. And the real defense, is look at all these things that don't quite add up. Is this person really hurt or are they trying to make a mountain out of a molehill? Are they trying to ask for money that they don't really deserve?
So the dirty trick that they use is, to pick all these details. They don't come out and say the injured person is a liar. What they do is, they say well, here's one thing that doesn't make sense, here's another thing that doesn't make sense, here's another thing that doesn't make sense, we're not done yet here's another thing and another thing and another thing and another thing.
How To Fight This?
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury if it was one or two or maybe even three things that didn't add up. We might be able to forgive them and believe the plaintiff, but seven or eight things? Where the plaintiff says it's one way but their doctor says it's another? The plaintiff says it's one way, their physical therapist says it's another? Different complaints every time they go to the doctor. The plaintiffs case doesn't add up. Literally that's what they argue and unfortunately it works. So how can you fight this? How can you combat it in your injury case?
Go To A Credible Doctor
Number one, go to a credible doctor who keeps good records. But every time you go to the doctor you have to make sure that the doctor is documenting every complaint. That's difficult to do with a paramedic or in the emergency room.
Have Your Medical Records Corrected
If your medical records are inaccurate, you actually have a right under Illinois law and in fact federal law, where you can request that your medical records be corrected if they are inaccurate. It might be that you're going to need to do that and correct your medical records. I might make another article on how to do that. What to do if you if you find inaccuracies in your medical records.
Most of what they do, most of the problems they create in these cases, come from the medical records, so that's the number one dirty trick. They basically try to call you a liar without coming out and calling you a liar.
