The
entire nation was devastated as they watched the fires burning
throughout Colorado last year and hundreds of people lost their homes;
now imagine that it was your house and the insurance company that you’ve
been diligently paying for
the last 30 years has started putting you off from your claim. WHAT?
That would never happen right? Wrong. The current laws that exist in
this country allow the insurance companies to misguide you into
believing they are on your side and working on your
claim, all the while delaying you until your claim goes beyond the
Statutes of Limitation for the type of claim you have; regardless of
whether it’s a claim for fire, flood, tornado, or an auto accident. And what
happens next is the tragedy! Once you have exceeded this obligatory date the insurance companies no longer have to
even talk to you about the case. Even though they may claim to have been "working on your claim," if it has not been fully
resolved by the anniversary date of your loss (statute of limitation),
you will lose all your legal rights to pursue the claim any further.
The
people of this nation are being fooled into believing that the
insurance companies are being ethical when it comes to processing
claims; however, they don’t even have to tell you about this law, and in most
cases won’t tell you. Furthermore,
only an attorney can help you try and circumvent this bad law, if you
catch it before the statute tolls. A law that is only beneficial to the
insurance companies and further victimizes victim’s needs to be changed
so that the average citizen of this country
does not lose his or her right to an equitable settlement. Make your
voice heard before it’s too late for you by writing to your congressmen
and women or sign any of the local petitions going around (there is an
online petition available on change.org at
http://www.change.org/petitions/insurance-victimization-reform-amend-the-sol-to-require-proper-rights-notification-on-insurance-claim-cases?utm_campaign=petition_created&utm_medium=email&utm_source=guides
This is what happened to me:
On February 19, 2010 I
was, through no fault of mine, hit from behind by your insured causing sever
whip lash, resulting in extensive neck pain (bulging disks) and accelerated
migraines. I began working with a Safeco Insurance claims specialists immediately to repair
my car and track my medical treatment.
After 2½ years of physical therapy, massage therapy, migraine therapy,
acupuncture, and finally a Medial Branch Radiofrequency Neurolysis treatment,
which was performed on September 13, 2012, I had my final visit with the pain
specialist on November 6, 2012; after which, I immediately contacted (via
email) Mr. Boyer (Safeco Insurance) to move on with this claim. Upon a follow-up call to inquiry
on the claim status (Dec. 1, 2012), Mr. Boyer informed me that he had not
received any of my records but would get them, evaluate and give me call. After not hearing back, on the 30th
of December I again contacted Mr. Boyer only to find out that still none of the
requests he ordered in October (according to his email) had been sent and that
he was concerned something went wrong in their mail room, but he was going to
call and fax the requests. I responded
to him that if I needed to get involved to let me know and I would. Again after no response, on March 5, 2013 I, again, began trying to contact Mr. Boyer only to be
ignored; both by email and phone. I even
called and sent an email as to the status of my claim to his supervisor Michael
Kreutzer (March 16, 2013) to no avail.
It is now my understanding that my claim had exceeded the
statues of limitations and has tolled. Any average person would believe that once Safeco Insurance accepted responsibility on this claim, is it not within the
realm of that responsibility to expediently, and diligently process the claim, without
delay or deceit? If I was expected to provide the insurance company with the actual
medical documents why would they continue to ask me for the medical
authorizations leading me to believe, that they were actively processing this
claim in good faith? I believe that would this have been an honest mistake or
oversight on the part of Safeco Insurances representative that he would have contacted me when
I reached out to him. My claim should have been
very well documented within Safeco's records and I feel that they have not upheld
their fiduciary responsibilities in processing it. How would you feel
about these claims practices if it were your situation?
I also sent a complaint to the Colorado
Division of Insurance to notify them of this bad business practice and informed
them of my current billed expenses of $22,962, not to mention the pain,
suffering and now undue stress that continues to be added to this personal
injury case. It’s situations like this that give insurance companies a bad
reputation and cause millions in litigation fees. Again, when I contacted Mr.
Boyer in November 2012 he made it clear that he would immediately start
processing my claim for injury settlement and at no time did he mention that I
was reaching my statute or that this was going to be a concern. Should I have known, I would have immediately
proved the medical records that I had, as I told him I would in December 2012, when Boyer indicated that he was going to call and fax my medical providers the authorization so he could get this resolved,
but again, he never told me that we were getting dangerously close to my
statute date and led me to believe that everything was proceeding normally.
I feel strongly that I have been treated unfairly and in bad
faith, I believe that the Safeco Insurance claims specialist intentionally led me to believe
that he was processing my claim only to unfairly malinger and delay said
processing, creating what I believe to be an Esstopel. Furthermore, Safeco's representative’s
intentional delay in processing my claim, unbeknownst to me, allowed the
statute to toll. Although liability for this accident was accepted at 100% by Safeco's insured’s part and the property portion of the claim was reasonably
handled I, unfortunately sustained extensive injuries and was not able to get
them resolved until November of 2012.
Regardless of the length of my treatment, I was under the impression that Safeco's
claims processor (first, Scott McCormac and then David Boyer) were ordering my
medical records and bills all along, as I had provided on multiple occasions
the names of my treating providers and the medical authorizations each time one
was requested. There was no doubt in my mind, nor should there have been with
Safeco's representative, Mr. Boyer, that I was making a claim for personal injury.
Unfortunately, I am now stuck paying all the medical bills incurred by this accident. While, I am not a big fan of most attorneys I would encourage you to not let this injustice happen to you. So whether you have a loss due to an accident, fire, flood, etc. ensure your claim will be processed timely and hire an attorney. Most attorneys will give you a free initial consultation, and it could save you thousands of dollars in the long run.
Help me change these bad laws by signing the following petition:
Thank you,
Raxton~
