In North Carolina, and in many states, if you take a personal injury claim to trial, you will be forbidden by law from letting the jury know the defendant has an insurance company to bear the burden of the consequences of their negligence.

That’s right.  Forbidden.  If the jury hears a peep about insurance, at best you will get a mistrial and have to start all over again with a new jury, and you might get a nasty talking to by the judge.

I find this unbelievable for several reasons. But it’s true, unfair though it may be.

Our system of justice relies upon the finders of fact – juries or judges – having as much information as possible to help them make decisions on these matters affecting our lives.

If you are an injury victim, then all of your laundry will be up for discussion; your previous medical history, substance abuse and mental health issues, family issues, everything will be put on display by the defense to help sway the jury for the defendant.

Thanks to new legislation (Billed vs. Paid) put forward by the Republicans, the party that loves insurance companies, even your health insurance can be discussed.  This information was formerly excluded from evidence under the Collateral Source Rule, on the premise that the defendant should not get the benefit of insurance you pay for.  Not so anymore.  Now the defense will talk all day about how you don’t really deserve much from the bad guy because you had insurance to pay for your injuries (forget that the other guy was drinking, ran a red light, and hasn’t even apologized for the accident).

OK, fine.  Full disclosure might be a good thing, right?  Maybe the jury should hear everything about everything so they make a fully informed decision.

The fact is that insurance companies have so successfully lobbied the Republican Party that they get full disclosure to the jury, but ONLY if it helps the insurance company.  Injury victims are barred from mentioning, even in passing, that the defendant has an insurance company to pay for the consequences of their negligence.  That’s right, the jury will hear all day long about your BCBSNC plan paying your bills, but they cannot, by law, hear a peep about how State Farm or Allstate or Nationwide or Geico has called you a malingering liar throughout this process, how they are paying for that driver’s defense attorney, and how they will have to pay – not their client – if you prevail.  You can’t tell them anything about how they nickel and dimed you on your property damage claim.  You can’t tell them anything about how rude their adjuster was to you, or how the adjuster tried to get you to settle your case while you were on Morphine in a hospital bed.  Nothing.  You simply can’t tell a jury about the defendant’s insurance.

What happened to full disclosure?  Isn’t what’s good for the goose good for the gander?  Isn’t turnabout fair play?  All of that means nothing when you are dealing with an insurance company lobby with enough money to buy legislation.

How is this fair?  It’s not.  What can we do about it?  A few things:

1)      Hire a personal injury attorney when you have an auto accident, dog bite, slip and fall, pharmacy error, or medical malpractice claim.  We are better equipped than you are to fight the insurance companies.

2)      If you are ever on a jury for a personal injury claim, go ahead and assume there is an insurance company on the hook, and tell your fellow jurors.  Chances are, if there is a defense attorney, there is an insurance company paying for him or her to be there.

3)      Tell people you know all about this and how unfair this is, and how personal injury attorneys are on your side.  You’re welcome to think that personal injury attorneys are “ambulance chasers” and slick, scheister, money-grubbers, but when you think about it, we are the ones helping the common, average guy – that’s you! – fight the mega-corporations with all of the money.  We are on your side, fighting against the insurance juggernaut!  Don’t hate us, help us!

4)      Vote Democrat.  I am not a registered Democrat, and I personally think political parties are not a good thing, but the fact is that the Democratic Party is against the Republicans, and the Republicans are bought and paid for by the insurance company lobby.  So if you want insurance companies to have their way with you while they rob you, fine.  But if you don’t, stand with me, vote Democrat, and do something to help the average citizen fight for a level playing field.

When you have an auto accident personal injury claim in North Carolina, the insurance company that represents the at-fault party has every reason to avoid paying you what you deserve.  Your personal injury attorney has to work hard to get you what you deserve; it’s not an easy job, and it’s only getting more difficult.

Don’t get me wrong:  I’m not trying to write a “woe is me” article about how bad we personal injury attorneys have it.  The point of this article is to help you understand how difficult auto accident injury claims can be in North Carolina, and what you might be able to do to help yourself and your claim.

The insurance company adjusters will use every reason they can justify, and many they can’t, to avoid paying you what you deserve.  But the thing I hear from them the most often is the “Minor Impact Soft Tissue” argument.  Many companies use this MIST acronym to flag claims that they don’t want to pay for.  They argue that the impact to your car was “minor” and as a result, you can’t be hurt, or you can’t be hurt as badly as you say you are.  In other words, “if the car ain’t hurt, you ain’t hurt.”  I hear it every day.

This is clearly unscientific.  Look at it this way: When we buy eggs, we always look inside the carton to make sure the eggs aren’t broken, right?  Even if the carton looks fine, the eggs can be broken.  This is the same with auto accidents.  You could be injured quite severely, and your car may not show much damage at all.  And remember Dale Earnhardt?  The accident that killed him wasn’t anywhere near the most cataclysmic of accidents in NASCAR.  His car just hit a wall.  There were no flips or rollovers, just a straight impact like many accidents on the road.

Think about it!  Cars are made of rubber, plastic, and metal – all resilient materials made to withstand significant impacts.  We are flesh and bone and blood and we take injuries in different ways than machine-made parts of vehicles.

The sad part about this argument is that it can work!  Juries are comprised of our peers, and our peers can fall for this argument, unscientific though it might be.

I hope you won’t be involved in one of these accidents, but if you find yourself in an auto accident where there’s relatively minimal damage to your car, I’ve laid out some tips below to help you out:

• Report your injury immediately.  The longer in time from the accident to your first complaint, the more the insurance company will use it against you. “Toughing it out” means tough luck for your claim.
• Get several estimates of your vehicle’s damage.  Don’t trust the first one.  More importantly, when they start work on your vehicle, make sure they know that you want everything that could have possibly been damaged to be checked out!  If they forget to check something, it may be too late to get it fixed.  Moreover, the more they have to fix, the more property damage they pay for and the harder it is for them to argue it was a “minor impact.”
• If anything inside the vehicle was damaged, save it and report it.  If your bumper isn’t smashed in, they will say you aren’t hurt.  But if your cell phone flew up against the console and got smashed, they will have a hard time arguing it was only a “minor impact.”
• Check your owner’s manual regarding seat belts and accidents.  Some manuals say that after any accident involving a reported injury, the seat belts should be replaced.  Make the insurance company pay for this, and that will also help get your case out of the “minor impact” category.
• If after your car is repaired, it seems to be having problems, take it back in!  If you let these things go, a) you won’t get them fixed on the other side’s dime, and b) it will lend credence to their argument that your car wasn’t damaged enough to warrant your injury.
• Choose a health care provider that is experienced with these sorts of auto accident claims and who isn’t afraid to go to bat for you and testify that your injuries were, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, caused by your accident.
•  Don’t linger in your treatment any more than you have to!  Running up a bill is a bad thing for injury claims.  Of course you need treatment, and of course you shouldn’t cut corners where you don’t have to.  Getting the treatment you need is important, but be active in the decision to be released from care, and let your provider know you want what you need, but only what you need.  The quicker you get better, the easier your claim should be.

These are just a few helpful tips.  Like I said before, I hope you don’t have an auto accident, and I hope you don’t need me for a auto accident claim, but if you do, perhaps these tips will come in handy.  Let me know if I can help.