Expert: webfoot - 10/8/2008

Question
What do you mean by “Don't worry about small claims court as these idiots have likely taken things to another level.”

Do you imply that you never care your client is sued in the small claims court? Your company very likes its insured to be sued in a small claims court. So you, as an adjuster, can lowball the offer. Can you explain your comment? In addition, it is noticeable you are the only one who does not participate rating. Is it because you know you will likely get a lot of low rating or what else?  

Answer
John,
It appears that you have either totally misinterpreted my comments or just have a hard on for insurance companies. A friend of mine read all of the previous text and thinks that you may just be a forum troll.  Hopefully, she is wrong.

What I meant by the insurer taking things to another level is that they have exposed themselves to a level of liability (through their own stupidity) that the damages from both you and their own insured would be far above the small claims court level. Just because your son made an odd choice by leaving the scene after he was hit doesn't mean that their driver is not liable for hitting someone on a sidewalk.  This is why cars have mirrors on the right side.  

As far as my experience as an adjuster, I am an auto property damage adjuster and this is clearly stated in my profile along with the fact that I do not handle bodily injury questions. The only claims that I handle that involve litigation are either subrogation matters or criminal cases related to insurance fraud.  In the case of both, I am called as a witness to verify evidence.

Regarding your statement "Your company very likes its insured to be sued in a small claims court. So you, as an adjuster, can lowball the offer", this makes so little business sense (nor grammatical for that matter) that I'm not even sure how to address it.

I've participated in various help forums and have learned that many of those who are after ratings are actually participating to further their own self interests.  You will find that many "volunteers" are actually PI attorneys, independent adjusters, small business owners etc and they will not hesitate to try and get business off of the sites.

I'm just a volunteer and one who is not afraid to speak the truth, either for or against my industry.  
I do not care about ratings.  People who do have a tendency to only say what they believe others want to hear.  I also have a low tolerance for idiots and you would not believe the number of outright stupid, poorly written, common sense questions that I've received. My girlfriend is an English teacher and we have a ball with the sentence structure, bad grammar etc.  This is why the website strongly suggests that people at least try in that area. Many of the questions are not even insurance questions but instead, questions of morality. These are questions such as "I hit my neighbors car last night while drunk; should I tell him"? It is really sad sometimes to see how poorly parents have raised their children.  

I often get a surprising amount of question from people who are obviously trying to figure a way to instigate outright fraud. Most of these are marked as "private".  I spend my workday having to hold my tongue as yes, we insurance adjusters are rated through surveys.  As a volunteer on this site, I welcome the opportunity to actually come out and say what needs to be said.

Thank you for your comments, questions and I hope that I've been a help to you.