Hey, I’m Sally Morin and I’m a California personal injury attorney here to talk about a common problem with bicycle, motorcycle, pedestrian and sometimes auto accident cases.
A lot of times clients will come to me, I’ll ask them, “Hey, is there an issue with liability? Is the other party disputing it? Are they trying to blame you for the accident?” The clients absolutely sure that that’s not the case because, “Oh, the police took a report and then they put liability on the other
Then they’ll get contacted by the other party’s insurance company, who will then not take responsibility and deny liability for the accident. How can they do this?
A lot of times, simply, a business move. Insurance companies want to save money, they don’t want to pay claims. It could be one out of ten times if they deny a case it might just go away. If your claim has been denied, you want to have a qualified personal injury attorney check it.
There’s another reason that they could deny liability later even though the police were in your favor, it’s because their client changed their story.
At the scene of the accident, the other party might be very apologetic and say, “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. It was my fault.” Then later, when they realize that their insurance coverage might be pulled or their rates are going to increase, they tell their insurance carrier a different story. “Oh, it wasn’t my fault. The other guy caused the accident.” Whatever they can do to try and save money or avoid having their insurance policy.
This is epidemic bike and motorcycle and pedestrian cases specifically. I even have cases where my clients have lost consciousness and assumed everything was good. The client has serious injuries which he or she needs to focus on, so they assume the police will get all the information but then later find out that there was witnesses that didn’t get interviewed and the statements that were made at the scene have been changed later.
You also can’t rely on the police to get all the information. They can’t interview every witness that was there and take down all the information, especially if there are serious
If you have a situation where liability was clear and now it is being denied by the insurance company, you definitely want to speak to with a qualified California personal injury attorney and have them evaluate it and get their experts on board to support your bicycle, pedestrian or motorcycle accident case.
