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Insurance company stalled paying claim until after the statute of limitations was up.? |
I am in Texas. I was hit by a driver in Dec. of 2004. Car was a total wreck, my mom & I were forced into therapy. Immediately the insurance company (Fred Loya) tried to settle for $100. They were very persistent, but we told them to wait until we were done with our medical bills to settle the claim (this is a legal right). A few months later, we finished physical therapy and submitted the final bills to them. They stalled and stalled and stalled. We called and called and called. We asked for superviors. We asked for managers. All of them gave me some kind of run-around. TO make a long story short, this went on for over 2 years and now the VP of claims says verbally - "sorry, statute of limitations is up & law says we don't owe you anything." I can prove I sent them everything and I have call logs to show that I kept calling them. THEY stalled, not me. Texas attorneys or insurance experts: Any advice on what i can do? This is the game insurance companies always play, either put the claimer under pressure to settle the claim at early stage at lowest value or if the claimer insist, like in your case, they try to waiste time to make you either forget , give up and at the best case to make you accept lowest offer( if you have fullfilled all the legal / official documentation). From the situation I can feel you haven't fullfilled yor obligations towards the paper works or may be you've delivered the claim documents / bills to the insurance company without having legal notification / acknowledgement receipt. Call a lawyer. You need a lawyer! Stay away from the ones with the big ads in the yellow pages. You need an attorney NOW. Whenever I have to deal with an insurance company I always say, "see my attorney here is his number." it is not up they do not want to pay contact a crimal lawery and the courts on this matter and then you call them and saw you are sueing them you will need to confer with an attorney, but from one case i know the statue of liberations is 2years You need to file a complaint with the Texas Department of Insurance. If they will not assist you, then you may want to consider contacting an attorney. If it gets to the point where you hire an attorney, this will strengthen you case because it will show that you exhausted all available avenues before suing. The link below will help you get to a complaint form. Does not matter the claim was already filed. Contact the Better Business Bureau, then contact the Federal Governments Insurance Fraud Board. These are listed on the net. Based on what you have provided, and assuming that you can prove that you had been in contact with them in the time between now and the accident, they are potentially trying to stone-wall you. You are going to need an actual lawyer there to either contact them on your behalf ( that would probably help them remember the details ) or he may have to sue them to either force them to settle or take it to court. Absent a written agreement to extend the SOL, you are generally SOL. However, there are some equity-based exceptions. Consult an attorney. The personal injury statute in Texas was 2 years last time I had a case there. The CA statute was extended to two years about 4 years ago--it used to be one year. Under the old one year statute, In cases involving more serious injury, it was not uncommon for the plaintiff to still be treating not only at the one year point, but beyond. The new 2 year statute affords a better opportunity for both sides to assess the claim and to explore possible pre-litigation resolution. Anyway, attorneys are very careful to file before the statute expires, regardless of the status of negotiations, unless there is a written agreement to extend. Again, check with an attorney--or two or three. By the way, if the insured--the would-be defendant--was absent from the state during the 2 years, the statute is extended by the duration of the absence. I used that once to my client's advantage. I assume this is the other driver's insurance you are talking about and not your own uninsured motorist coverage. Yes the statue of limitations is two years in Texas. I must say BUT BUT BUT if there was proof of the accident such as police report if not get it if available. You can also turn it into your insurance company you should have done this when the accident occured. They will or can pay. They also will have more power to go after the other parties insurance company which in most cases they will. I hope you have some forms of contact back from the insurance company in their words of any offer this helps to establish that they know they have a responsiblity to you. |
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