New Jersey Accident and Injury Law Blog : New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : The Grossman Law Firm : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

A family in Illinois is finding out just how hard an insurer will try to avoid having to pay out in a dog bite incident. The insurer, Illinois Farmers Insurance has filed suit this week to avoid paying compensation to the victim of a dog bite attack.

The dog bite here occurred in July last year. The victim Chloe Pluger was bitten by a dog belonging to Gary and Sharon Lindstrom. Chloe's father Matthew Pluger filed a lawsuit against the Lindstroms. The lawsuit sought to recover compensation for injuries that Chloe suffered in the dog bite attack. However, Farmer’s Insurance refused to cover the injuries. 

The basis for this was that Chloe's mother had been dating Lindstrom's son when the dog bite occurred. The insurer alleged that for months before the dog bit Chloe, and for two weeks after the dog bite, they had all been residing in the same house belonging to the Lindstroms. According to the insurer, their dog bite policy specifically excludes members of the same household from liability.

To those not familiar with the kind of measures that insurers can adopt to avoid having to pay out compensation to injured victims, this means that the Farmer's policy excludes Chloe because she had been living at the Lindstrom's residence when the attack occurred.

As this case shows, you can expect an insurance company to try everything possible to avoid having to pay out compensation even in a simple dog bite case where liability is apparent.   I don't know much about the injuries that Chloe suffered here, but in case of a severe dog bite, victims may be looking at heavy medical expenses that could leave them in severe financial distress if the insurer refuses to pay out.

Scott Grossman is a dog bite attorney in New Jersey representing victims of dog bites in Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic, and Bergen Counties, and across the state of New Jersey.

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Last week, the Pennsylvania House Insurance Committee held a public hearing to discuss a bill introduced to create an independent office that would give a voice to the state's consumers in insurance matters. The proposed Office of Consumer Advocate for Insurance is designed to protect the largely unprotected and neglected insurance consumer in Pennsylvania. The office would possess the authority to represent citizens'  best interests on any insurance matter before the state Department of Insurance or any other state agency or court.

New Jersey should follow Pennsylvania's lead, which is a first step in the right direction. Many states have long had "bad faith" insurance laws in place. Connecticut has its "Connecticut Unfair Insurance Practices Act" (CUIPA) which holds insurance companies accountable when they act in bad faith by either refusing reasonable settlement offers or by their outright denial of meritorious claims. CUIPA is a law with bark and bite; it imposes fines and sanctions for egregious offenders.  Unfortunately, New Jersey's legislature has been hijacked by the powerful insurance lobby and here, as opposed to other states, we as consumers, have no real way of holding insurance companies accountable when they breach their fiduciary duty to their insureds. Here in New Jersey the insurance companies are accountable to no one except their shareholders.

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• "Delay, deny, defend" is the battle cry for the auto insurance industry to protect their multi-billion dollar empire. In a recent report filed by CNN's Drew Griffin, he uncovered that this practice is rampant among the nation's auto insurance companies when people are injured in what insurance representatives consider a "minor impact" auto accident.   New Jersey attorneys representing persons who have suffered injuries in auto accidents have long experienced first hand these tactics of the nation's largest insurance companies.  Throughout the past decade I have represented many individuals that were involved in what the insurance company deemed a "minor impact" and as a result of the accident they suffered serious permanent injuries such as a herniated disc. Many times the injuries were so debilitating that after multiple steroid injections, extensive narcotics usage, physical therapy and chiropractic care, spinal surgery became the only option.   The suffering was very real.

 

 

• The auto insurance companies do not want the public to understand the most important of Newton's Laws on Physics.  Energy does not dissapear, it is transmitted to the impacted vehicle and hence to the occupants.  Often times at trial, after years of delays from the insurance company,  defense counsel will blow up a photo of the impacted vehicle that does not show significant property damage. A strategy frequently successful in having jurors draw an inference that the injuries claimed by the plaintiff are either untrue or if true they must have been from some other cause unrelated to the auto accident.  The CNN news story referenced above did an excellent job exposing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to insurance companies doing whatever it takes to put corporate profits above the interests of those very individuals they are supposed to help.  
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  • In New Jersey when you are involved in a motor vehicle accident, your medical bills are supposed to paid for through the PIP, Personal Injury Protection benefits of the injured persons' insurance company without regard to who caused the accident.  So in New Jersey,  the medical benefits through PIP coverage follows the person and not the vehicle.  However, the policy of denial often times happens through the issuance of a medical treatment cut-off or denial letter on the basis that the patient has reached MMI or maximum medical improvement.   This frequently occurs without consulting the treating physician or without even examining the patient.  Often the denial will be on the reccomendation of a physician advisor review.  This means that a physician of like specialty will review some of your medical records and decide for your insurance company, while being paid by that insurance company if you should be cut-of from further treatment regardless of what you may be feeling.  The system is driven to maximize profits by minimizing costs of medical care to insurance companies own insureds.  To add insult to injury, these corporate profits aren't even passed onto the consumer in the form of auto insurance rate reductions.  The PR spin shall continue........Blame the lawyers for your exorbitant auto insurance rates. It works each year after year along with the deeply ingrained favorite phrase of the insurance corporate elite ..."TORT REFORM".   
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  • Please read the CNN article linked above and I invite all who are interested or who have personal stories to tell to respond to this post. 
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