St. Paul Personal Injury Attorney Marcus Gatto
St. Paul personal injury attorney Marcus Gatto talks about what you should do if your insurance carrier refuses to pay additional medical expenses.
If you’ve been in an automotive accident, there’s a good chance you’ve been injured. It might be relatively minor, or it might be serious, but in either case it is your insurance company’s job to cover the damages you both agreed to when you purchased your policy. That’s why you got your insurance, after all. But what happens when your insurance sets a limit on what they’ll cover that isn’t what was agreed upon in your policy? What recourse do you have when they simply fold their arms and say no, they’re not going to pay those medical expenses?
Well, that’s when you take them to court.
No Fault Arbitration, And Your Case
Under Minnesota law, if there is a no fault accident, then an insurance company still has to pay for the costs associated with the accident in question. However, insurance companies maintain their profits by paying as little as possible. So their goal is to hedge and refuse as many payments as possible so they can keep the largest amount of money in their own coffers.
If your insurance company is refusing to abide by their part of an agreement, then you as a customer may legally dispute their refusal. This means you take them to court. You file a no fault arbitration, a matter which is handled by the American Arbitration Association. In this process your attorney argues your case, and you dispute the insurance company’s refusal to cover your medical bills, lost wages, replacement services, or any other incidentals that are covered under your policy.
Because you’ve been paying for it all this time, and both you and your insurance company signed an agreement regarding what would be covered. They can’t suddenly change the terms of that agreement just because you actually need them to cover your expenses after an accident.
You Don’t Have To Just Take What Your Insurance Company Gives You
The important thing to remember is that, while you may be a customer, your insurance company works for you. You are the one paying for a service, and you have a legally binding agreement with them. The company can’t suddenly decide it’s inconvenient when you actually call on them to provide the services you’ve been paying for all this time, no matter how it might affect the company’s bottom line. Because that’s not your problem; they entered into the agreement, and they have to follow through with it under the terms of your policy.
And you shouldn’t be afraid to make waves and get the legal system involved if you’re getting frozen out of the services and expenses that you paid for. Because accidents happen, and in Minnesota the no fault law says that insurance companies need to hold up their end of the agreement and cover what they agreed to cover. Even if your injuries are expensive, your lost wages are serious, or you have to keep getting medical treatment long past the accident. It changed your life, and your insurance policy is supposed to be your safety net. It’s what you’re depending on when things go wrong.
If you do have to take your case to arbitration, then you need to have an attorney who is there for you. Someone who will fight for your case, and dispute the insurance company’s claim that they’ve done enough, even if it’s not everything they said they’d do. If you need that kind of legal help, all you have to do is contact us today. We’re here for you, and we will make sure that every avenue is explored, and every argument made on your behalf.