We constantly face with an excessive interest on the part of insurance companies in launching the message that there is a high percentage of fraud against insurers with the aim of collecting undue compensation.
This message is very recurrent for insurance companies, firstly, because the message gets through, and secondly, because they spread this false belief which, after so much repetition, we end up believing it, thus placing the insurance companies in a position of false prejudice.
We can observe how, in all types of media, statistical data appear in this sense, always provided by insurance companies and never by other sources outside the sector.
Well, the reality is quite different, and the fact is that, while the fraud of the insurance companies is minimal (barely 2%), it makes a lot of noise, compared to the real fraud that these companies carry out with each claim received by an injured person, which is devastating, but sounds very little.
The insurers are constantly extorting the success of every personal injury claim in road traffic accidents from the very moment the claim is made, using various practices.
Here are a few examples, among others:
Fraud 1
The companies control the medical treatment. In a traffic accident, the victim must be treated by a centre of the network of rehabilitation clinics whose payment must be authorised and assumed by the company itself. Often, the companies do not authorise such treatments on arbitrary and unfounded criteria that the courts themselves do not admit, knowingly. But that does not matter, what is important for the insurer is that, if it does not pay, the injured parties cannot receive medical treatment and, from that moment on, they begin to lose their rights to compensation. The company saves on medical treatment, and saves on compensation.
Fraud 2
Out-of-court claims are rejected in their entirety by the companies, forcing the injured parties to pay the cost of legal proceedings, so that the competent court finally upholds their claim and grants the injured party the corresponding compensation. But that does not matter, because many claims fall by the wayside, again saving the companies money.
Fraud 3
Out-of-court claims involving serious injuries to which the company amicably makes fixed offers of between 3,000.00 and 6,000.00 euros. Once in the legal proceedings, there are countless cases in which we have managed to obtain compensation of up to 50,000.00 euros, light years away from the offer for which the company intended to close the case. Again, saving thousands of euros at the expense of the injured parties who, due to lack of advice, decide not to go to court.
Fraud 4
Offers made by insurance companies without accompanying them with an expert medical report to back them up, despite the obligation imposed by law. This is in order to save the cost of commissioning the corresponding Medical Expert. This also means that the injured party does not have sufficient elements of judgement to be able to decide whether or not to accept an offer.
Fraud 5
Derisory legal defences. In some cases, they present a maximum limit of 200 euros, so that the injured party has to pay for the fees of a private lawyer and a private solicitor. This renders this clause, which has been considered abusive by the courts, meaning that it is devoid of content.
In short, the cost saved by the insurance companies, to the detriment of the victims of traffic accidents, with this type of practice that they carry out on a daily basis is immensely greater than the cost that the minimum percentage of fraud that exists can suppose.
This is why we cannot allow this false dogma to continue to spread, simply because it does not correspond to reality. It is a hard task to fight the insurance lobby, but not impossible.
