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The Ease of Filing Lawsuits Contributes to Rising Insurance Costs

By: Sharda Mcknight


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You can see advertisements everywhere you look, from phone books to billboards to even the televisions and newspapers. We can assist you whether you have been in a car crash, experienced whiplash, or injured in an accident. The phone book has several pages filled with promises of free help until your claim is settled, bloody red headlines and photos of hurt people on stretchers. Short term loans against future settlements are being offered by some of the advertisements.

An insurance bureau is claiming that such advertising, made by personal injury lawyers, is driving up claim cost. This is result in some motorists not even getting coverage due to the increases. The insurance bureau's regional service manager states that there are more people coming in with little damage to their vehicles and receiving huge claims due to their injuries. According to this manager, the insurance industry wants to pay for true claims, but that the amounts injured people are claiming are out of control.

The claim amounts are causing auto insurance premiums to be raised, but the amount is different with each company. If you are at a good risk you may even be seeing an average increase of 15 to 35 percent. If you have been involved in an accident or have received a ticket in the last few years, the increase you will see is going to be even greater than that.

Lawyers say there is no connection between their advertisement campaign and the increase in cost. One lawyer claims to not understand the link the insurance bureau draws between number of claims made and the number of such ads in the area. A person who has a valid claim against a third party driver should definitely be entitled to a claim against them. Unfortunately not everyone agrees. Recently, the law society began to question the practice of granting loans to those injured in automobile accidents, for fear that it violates the code of conduct.

There is another prolific lawyer who states that the advertisement being done probably does attract more people to file claims. Though he does not necessarily see that as troubling. He goes on to say that, "It's a shame that retaining a lawyer to advice you of your rights is considered such a bad thing by the insurance industry." The attorney acknowledges the increase in cost to the insurance carriers, and does not dispute the notion that reform might be useful, but states also that the industry group has refused to collaborate with attorneys to solve problems.

The bar association president claims the insurance industry should look into accident prevention to reduce their claim costs. He'd like to see the insurance folks lobbying for increased fines for infractions caught by photo radar and bans on cell phone use by drivers. He also wonders why insurance companies don't call for improved road safety for the decrease of accidents. He did note that insurance profits have been severely cut, and their investments have suffered of late.

Meanwhile, legislation is being called for by insurance companies that should prevent motorists from double dipping. Some of the people who are trying to make claims, that had to miss work due to an accident, are attempting to be compensated by the loss of work, when their jobs have already compensated them. Another bad thing about this is that the people receive gross wages, not wages that have been taxed. This ends up making not going back to work a more attractive option. People realize they will be paid even more for being off longer amounts of time.

Few lawyers have a good inkling of the number of injury accident lawyers are practicing today, but they don't think additional places for these lawsuits exist. Sometimes the pain and suffering from the accident is severe and will not ever go away, which is one thing that the motorists can sue for. According to the insurance companies, aggressive advertising is attempting to boost demand for exorbitant claims, but nothing could be further from the truth. After all, it is well within a lawyer's right to hold off on payment until a settlement is one. It is also acceptable to absorb the costs of litigation if a client should lose.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

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