Travelers Insurance Plays Same Dirty Tricks as Other Carriers!
April 1, 2008 12:20 pm Auto Accidents, NY Auto Insurance, NY Laws and Cases
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I received a phone call recently from a prospective client who was struck by a car insured by Travelers Insurance while walking from his employer’s parking lot to the building he worked from. Luckily, this individual appears to have sustained only minor injuries (he was struck by the car’s side view mirror only). That didn’t stop Travelers, though, from trying to cheat him out of benefits he may be due under the policy. First, they tried to tell him that he should file a Worker’s Compensation claim through his employer, as he was walking to work at the time he was struck by the car. Nice try! Under New York State law, this type of accident is clearly the responsibility of the no-fault carrier (Travelers, in this case) NOT the worker’s compensation carrier.
When Travelers’ first attempt at shirking their obligations failed, they came up with a new story. As regular readers of this blog know, in order to bring a personal injury case for injuries arising out of a motor vehicle accident in New York, you have to have sustained a “serious injury” as defined in the New York State Insurance Law. Sometimes it is easy to tell when someone has a “serious injury”. Sometimes you can’t tell for months. Despite the fact that this accident occurred only two weeks ago, the Travelers adjuster was trying to convince this individual that he did NOT have a serious injury. Since, the adjuster claims, this individual did not sustain a serious injury, the most the adjuster can pay him under New York State law is $1,000.00
This, Ladies and Gentleman, is a bold faced, out right LIE! There is no such rule! Travelers can pay as much as they want, and they routinely pay more than this on disputed cases where serious injury is in doubt. This is just another insurance company hoping to take advantage of someone before they hire an attorney and learn the truth! That’s just part of why I love my job, having the ability to expose the lies of the insurance companies and make them live up to the obligations we pay and pay and pay them for!
Incidentally, this is not the first time Travelers has been involved in some shady dealings. See the link below.
Thank for reading,
Adam M. Gee, Esq.
Personal Injury and Malpractice Attorney
Ziff, Weiermiller, Hayden & Mustico, LLP
303 William Street
Elmira, NY 14901
Phone: (607)733-8866
Fax: (607)732-6062
Email: agee@zifflaw.com
www.zifflaw.com
April 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Very interesting! Pretty sneaky of them to do. I wish I could say I was surprised. Great post!!
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:11 am
On June 24, 2007, Kristi was at a caution light waiting to turn left. She was hit from behind at approximately 60 MPH. She did not have any broken bones, that we know of, but suffered severe backlash and disk problems with her neck, lower, and middle back. She has had Fibro Myalgia for several years.
We retained Bruce Roberts of Roberts & Roberts. They came highly recommended. Bruce had some tests run on her and then she was put into physical therapy. She has not improved. We feel, that Bruce feels, that because Kristi has had Fibro Myalgia that she will not receive much of a settlement, even though the doctors are saying that some of injuries were caused by the wreck and the wreck accelerated others. We feel that he believes her part would only be about two or three thousand dollars. This concerns us. We feel that Bruce is hesitant about Tyler, Texas jurors. We feel that he may be giving up before we even start fighting for my wife’s well being. We know that we are looking at treatment for her for the rest of her life. We feel that the wreck took many valuable years away from us.
Before the wreck, my wife cleaned our home. She used the vacuum cleaner, washed clothes and ironed some of them, washed out bath tubs, cooked, shopped, etc. Now if she needs a gallon of milk out of the refrigerator she has to ask me to come and get it. I mop the floors, cook most of the time, shop, and do most of the things she used do. She even needs a cane on her bad days.
Oh, and please do not get us wrong. We believe that Bruce is one heck of a nice fellow and a very sincere one. We just want to make sure that we are exercising all of our options.
We do not know if this letter will do any good, but we certainly wanted to try and get another opinion about our case. We have heard that your firm was probably the best in the country on these matters.
The case is now settled and we received a whopping $4300! The company was Allstate.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Mr. Sulack - since I am only admitted to practice in New York and Pennsylvania, I can’t begin to give you an educated opinion on whether you received a fair settlement or not. What I can tell you is that it is probably too late to do anything about it at this point since you indicated you have already settled your case. Individuals like yourselves, who know little to nothing about the laws governing personal injury actions, can’t begin to assess the value of a case. Even attorneys who don’t regularly practice in the area of personal injury can sell a client short through their inexperience. That’s why it is so important that anyone hiring a lawyer for their personal injury case look for someone who is experienced in that area of law and who focuses their practice on injury cases. The laws governing personal injury cases are just too complicated to dabble in PI and think you can do your client justice.
Thanks for reading,
Adam M. Gee, Esq.
Personal Injury and Malpractice Attorney
Ziff, Weiermiller, Hayden & Mustico, LLP
303 William Street
Elmira, NY 14901
Phone: (607)733-8866
Fax: (607)732-6062
Email: agee@zifflaw.com
http://www.zifflaw.com
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
You write ” the adjuster claims, [that since] this individual did not sustain a serious injury, the most the adjuster can pay him under New York State law is $1,000.00″ Any chance the client got it wrong and the adjuster said that “the most we will pay when the is no serious injury [even you say it was a "minor injury"] is a $1,000?” And if you have no doubt that that was what said, shouldn’t the client file a complaint with the New York State Insurance Department?
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 am
Mr. Schepp - I sincerely doubt these people got it wrong. I asked for clarification on exactly that point, and they were adamant they were told that’s all they were ALLOWED to pay under NYS law.
As you mention, they should make a complaint to the NYS Insurance Department, and I advised them of this right. Not that it will do any good, though. In my experience, the Insurance Department is populated by individuals sympathetic to the insurance companies, who only look to excuse the sneaky and unethical actions of the companies they are supposed to oversee.
With regards to the extent of this individual’s injuries, I said he APPEARS to have sustained only minor injuries. With your experience in the field, you know as well as I that what may start out looking like a case that will never satisfy the serious injury threshold can sometimes turn out to be quite significant. Soft tissue injuries take time to develop and gradually get worse. Our firm has handled many SIGNIFICANT cases that started out exactly this way!
You continue to raise excellent points. Thanks for contributing to the discussion!
Adam M. Gee
Personal Injury and Malpractice Attorney
Ziff, Weiermiller, Hayden & Mustico, LLP
303 William Street
Elmira, NY 14901
Phone: (607)733-8866
Fax: (607)732-6062
Email: agee@zifflaw.com
http://www.zifflaw.com
August 28th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I had Travelers’ for several years and never made a claim on them. Apparently the company will drop any customer who makes a claim. They only accept drivers with clear records.
After I got remarried and added my new husband to my policy, since he drove my truck to, Travelers’ dropped me and did a seven year background check on me and my husband. They included his son as a possible driver( he was currently on the USS Nimitz), they also included my husbands ex-wife ( who was current in jail in Gwinnett Co.) and he had two tickets on his record. They did not include my ex-husband of 35 yr.
Travelers’ is part of the AM Trust Group. AM Trust also does Workers’ Comp. Ins. and I have a claim with Technology who is part of AM Trust and my getting any medical treatment has required a lawyer to get everything done. Anyone stuck with having to deal with these companies, get a good lawyer.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Trudy - your personal experience confirms what we all know about insurance companies. They love you when you are sending them a check every month, but the minute you make a claim, the minute it is finally time for them to follow through on the policy you have loyally been paying for years, look out!
Thanks for your input. For a list of other insurance companies to avoid, see my recent article on the 10 worst insurance companies in America.
Thanks for reading,
Adam M. Gee, Esq.