Washington Injury Law Blog

As a Kirkland Personal Injury Attorney I often have car accident clients who have suffered severe injuries – which have left them with chronic injuries that will last the rest of their lives. A traumatic brain injury can leave you permanently disabled with lingering effects from the accident.

A test has been developed by an insurance company doctor, Dr. Paul Lees-Haley, to find people who are faking injuries or over exaggerating the severity of their injuries. The test – called “Fake Bad Scale” – claims to find injury victims who are lying about the severity of their injuries. Which would be all and good if it was proven to be scientifically accurate – it isn’t. There is a lot of controversy and disagreement amongst the scientific community regarding the tests reliability and accuracy in finding fakers (a.k.a malingerers).

An article in the Wall Street Journal last week shed some light on this latest battle between greedy insurance companies and good guys like me, otherwise know as plaintiff’s attorneys. The test is commonly given as part of a psychological exam as a sub-part of the MMPI. Unfortunately, nearly everyone who takes it can be considered a faker – according to leading critic Dr. James Butcher. Great for insurance companies, bad for you the injury victim!

The test asks 43 true or false questions like “My sleep is fitful and disturbed” or “I have nightmares every few nights.” For someone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder these can be legitimately true statements, but the test counts two points towards classifying you as a faker. Other test questions are “I have very few headaches” or “I have few or no pains.” If you suffer from chronic headaches you would say false, and again the test would count two more points towards labeling you a faker.

The author of this test, Dr. Lees-Haley over the last 18 years has received 95% of his work from defense attorneys representing insurance companies. I also find it very interesting that Dr. Lees-Haley paid to have his faker test published in a small medical journal in an attempt to buy his test instant creditability.

Luckily for injury victims across the country judges have often been persuaded to not allow this test into evidence in court cases. Whenever there is a genuine controversy surrounding the scientific soundness of a test – courts are generally suppose to forbid its use as evidence.

I have not had a case where Fake Bad Scale has raised its ugly head. But I’m sure its only a matter of time. Let’s hope that our Washington judges – if or when faced with deciding whether to allow the use of the Fake Bad test against an injury victim – choose on the side of caution. Choosing to protect injury victims over the greedy insurance company’s attempts buy excuses for failing to pay legitimate injury claims should be any easy choice in my biased opinion.

The best course of action if your insurance company is calling you a faker (a.k.a. malingerer) or requesting an “independent” psychological exam is to speak with an experienced Washington injury attorney pronto. Before you agree to this kind of testing you should absolutely know your rights!

A study paid for by State Farm Insurance found that car crashes cause the most teen and tween deaths annually. The most dangerous circumstances for young passengers are: riding unbuckled with new teen driver on high speed road (over 45 mph speed limit), riding with driver who has been drinking, male teen drivers, and driving on weekends.

Researchers reviewed national data on serious car accidents from 2000 to 2005. During those years 2.5 million kids ages 8 to 17 were involved in a car crash and 9,807 of them died from their accident injuries. The risk of death for kids riding with teens drivers is at least double that of riding with drivers 25 and older. Teens with less than one year’s experience were the most dangerous.

Parents the message is clear – Don’t let your kids ride with a teen driver who has less than a year’s experience. Insist in seatbelts and find ways for your kids to resist peer pressure to ride in cars driven by other teens.

Study data also suggests that restricting driving privileges reduces these risks. Making the age requirement higher, forbidding other child passengers until a certain age, and restricting the hours that can operate a vehicle can all help in reducing the dangers to our kids. Perhaps Washington should look enacting

Source: Seattle PI, March 4, 2008, by reported Lindsey Tanner

Imagine your house and everything you own is gone to a devastating fire when you return from work today. Then your insurance company says it will only pay an amount that covers 80% of what its going to cost to rebuild the house you just bought brand new 3 months ago. Your homeless, with only the clothes on your back, what do you do? So many people find themselves in this situation every year.

Wind storms, firestorms, hurricanes, tornadoes can all cause catastrophic damage to your home or even the entire loss of the home. Wind storms and firestorms have destroyed many Washington homes in the last couple years. At tragic times like these you need something to hold your life together as it crumbles around you. Homeowner’s insurance is suppose to be that safety net – where you’re put back to as good as new by your friendly neighborhood insurance company.

All too often – this is merely TV hype – and the reality is shocking and infuriating.  Insurance companies are raking in record profits this year – more money than any time in their history. How is this happening? The companies say their just having a few good years, others say their cutting coverage and low balling claims payments. I wonder if these record profits have come on the backs of Katrina victims or San Diego firestorm victims or tornado victims in the midwest?

In 2003 San Diego had a wildfire that destroyed attorney Karen Reimus’ brand new house and her entire neighborhood. “It’s what I would fathom Armageddon would look like. Because it was just every home completely down to the ground and just black and sooty and there’s smoke in the air … And it looked like maybe you were walking into hell.” Reimus said a different kind of hell soon followed – dealing with her insurance company – Liberty Mutual.

Reimus’ house was fully insured based on the recommendations and determinations made by Liberty Mutual when she purchased the insurance. However, the offer she received from Liberty Mutual after the total fire loss stunned her. The offer of things Liberty Mutual would pay for – called a scope of loss – failed to included everything necessary to rebuild the house. The offer contained no money to have blue prints draw up to rebuild the house – how do you build a house without architectural blue prints? Other areas of the offer were also missing or too low.  It quickly became clear to Reimus and her husband that the offer was not based on reality – they had been low balled!

The Reimus’ were forced to take the gloves off and go to battle with Liberty Mutual. As an attorney this choice was much easier for Mrs. Reimus, but most homeowners do not have the advantage of a legal education. What happens to them? Abuse by insurance companies happens!

Instead of managing risk, insurance companies are attempting to eliminate risk – which is crazy and counter to the whole way insurance is suppose to work. Insurance companies are suppose to collect enough payments from their customers to cover a certain amount of damage claims that they knows will occur on average per year with a little extra to make a profit. Insurance companies are not suppose to collect payments and pay no claims at all – by constantly changing the language of the policy and eliminating coverage all together. Why have insurance if the company is always trying to find ways to not pay for the protection its agent said you would have?

If you find yourself face with a low ball offer following a catastrophic loss of your house,  good first step is to file a formal complaint with the Washington State Insurance Commissioner. The second step is to contact an experience Washington insurance claims attorney to find out what rights you have given your circumstances. Getting good information early about the claims process and traps to avoid can save you headaches down the road.

A good general tip before you find yourself in the situation is to document the inside and outside of your home with good photos or a video.  It’s also a good idea to do the same with your personal belongings.  Having a complete and accurate record of all your clothes, furniture, electronics, power tools, yard tools, and all other personal belongs with as much detail as possible including purchase date and price will help fight any low ball offers from your insurance company. 

Source:  CNBC – March 3, 2008, by Dana Ervin Miller and Scott Cohn