Have you been injured in a car accident involving a driver that is insured by GEICO and wonder why the insurance company refuses to pay your medical bills or compensate you for pain and suffering? You are not the only one. GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company) has a policy to refuse to pay legitimate injury claims when the motor vehicle collision involves a “low impact collision.” If the GEICO insurance adjustor believes the property damage to your vehicle is minor, the adjustor will refuse to compensate you for your personal injury claim as a matter of company policy. GEICO has taken this position to save money.
If GEICO pays fewer claims, it means more profit for its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway. GEICO knows that some injured victims will give up if the claim is rejected. The insurance company also knows that some personal injury attorneys will withdraw representation of the injured person if the insurance company refuses to pay during pre-suit negotiations. Some attorneys are not willing to undergo the expense and work required to file a lawsuit and litigate a case for an injured party. As a result, GEICO, who has the second highest market share of the automobile insurance market, avoids compensating thousands of people who have been injured in Harris County by the negligent actions of its insured drivers.
The O’Hara Law Firm has represented clients who, through no fault of their own, were injured by the negligent actions of drivers insured by GEICO. Many of these people attempted to resolve their claims on their own with GEICO adjustors and were denied compensation. The O’Hara Law Firm filed lawsuits against the negligent drivers when GEICO refused to compensate the injured parties. In many instances after the O’Hara Law Firm litigated the case, GEICO adjustors changed their positions and offered compensation to settle the claims.
GEICO’s Litigation Strategy
When GEICO has to defend a lawsuit against one of its insured drivers because it refused to pay the injured party, GEICO employs the same defense strategy to most cases. First, GEICO tries to put blame on anyone other than its insured driver. This includes blaming the injured plaintiff, blaming other drivers, not in the lawsuit, and even blaming the weather or road conditions.
Second, GEICO tries to reduce Plaintiff’s recovery by claiming that Plaintiff was not injured in the car accident, that Plaintiff must have been injured prior to the car accident, and/or that the medical bills are too high. GEICO hires defense “experts” that testify that the collision was not severe enough to cause the injuries diagnosed by the injured plaintiff’s treating physicians. These “experts” sometimes will base their opinions solely on pictures of damaged vehicles. In Harris County, GEICO repeatedly hires the same experts that have been struck by different courts for giving unreliable testimony. These biased experts testify for insurance companies and defendants 99% of the time.
In some cases, GEICO will also retain medical doctors who have not treated the injured person to disagree with the diagnoses and testimony of the injured person’s treating doctor. Insurance companies will pay these defense expert doctors between \$1,000 to \$2,000 an hour to give testimony contradicting treating physicians. At times, GEICO may spend more litigating the case than what it would cost to settle with the Plaintiff in order to avoid compensating the injured person.
The O’Hara Law Firm Will Not Back Down
The O’Hara Law Firm has filed multiple lawsuits against GEICO-insured drivers. The O’Hara Law Firm will litigate and take a case to trial if necessary. Many clients have retained Patrick O’Hara after insurance companies wrongly denied their claims.
If you have been injured in a motor vehicle collision, contact The O’Hara Law Firm for a free consultation. Patrick O’Hara is a car accident attorney that handles motor vehicle collision cases in Houston, Baytown, Humble, Spring, Cypress, Jersey Village, Bellaire, and other surrounding areas. The O’Hara Law Firm represents clients on a contingency fee basis. Call us at 832-956-1138.