Topic: Insurance abuse Dear Senator Cornyn, I have a story I would like to share with you about an insurance tactic that is hurting the insured, costing the tax payers money and wasting the courts time on lawsuits that should never have been brought to court. I can't share the other insurance companies names (other than my own) or the other stories I have heard (even by the Bailiff at the court house) because it would be here say so I am only going to share with you what I know first hand from my daughter, my sister-in-law and my own experience. On November 3rd, 2007 the three of us mentioned above were taking my daughter out to breakfast and shopping for her birthday. We stopped at a red light and had to sit through one and a half lights. As we sat there, all of a sudden we were hit hard from behind, immediately we all had a headache but were still quite stunned as to what happened. We had been hit from behind from another vehicle. I got out of my car and looked at the damage expecting my trunk to be in my back seat because the impact was so hard. I saw that it hit the metal part of my bumper and literally embossed her license plate into my bumper. As I approached her car I saw that Amy Mayes was wearing a Vail and had a wedding dress hanging behind her and she immediately said that she was a bride late for her wedding. As I tried to exchange information with Amy she resisted and told me her dad was an attorney. I saw that in her hand she was holding a cell phone. I did not see anyone else in her car. I told her my car was damaged and that everyone in my car was injured and that I was taking everyone to the ER to get them checked out. She never asked if we were o.k. She never got out of her vehicle, she just left. When I got back into my car I saw that the windshield had numerous cracks in it and I had no damage to the windshield prior to the hit. Amy and I happen to both have Farmer's Insurance and I immediately called them and told them about the accident and that I had three injured people in my car. The person on the phone gave me a claim number and told me to give it to the hospital and they would pay the bill. (They never paid the bill,) We were all treated by the hospital and told to go to our primary doctor as soon as we could get in. The hospital gave us each prescriptions for pain and muscle relaxers and told us to go home and go to bed and rest. (Which we did) Within a few days my husband went to the police station and I filled out an accident report and mailed it to Austin as I was told to do by the police department. We were told by Farmer's to take our car to the shop and get it repaired but Farmer's refused to pay for the windshield and since I was in a 1 year old car that we had purchased new, my husband and I paid out of pocket for the damage to the windshield because it would have been a danger to drive it that way and the possibility of snow , rain or sleet coming into the car and causing more damage was a risk we did not want to take. Next Farmer's only offered us our hospital visit and rejected paying for any of our other medical, medication or loss of wadges. We felt like since we were not negligent and since we were at no fault in this accident that we should at least recover our out of pocket expences and so we turned it down. Besides, all medical facilities make you sign a waver that if the insurance doesn't pay then you are liabe. We felt since we were injured because of anothers actions that we should not have to pay anything and so we rejected that offer, The case went to mediation, Farmer's wouldn't even offer the amount of our out of pocket to make us whole. So it went to court. This is when I found out about the insurance scam that is going on daily. When you go to court for an accident you are not allowed to let the jury know that the person representing the defendant is your own insurance in which you have been a loyal customer to for 9 years and never had an accident or even a ticket, I was never late on a payment, nothing. The attorney from Farmers presented to the court in such a way that it lead the jury to believe that we had already been paid by insurance and now we were suing Amy. He never came out and actually said those words but it was insuated. He made us look like we were just money seekers and do this all of the time knowing full well that was a lie, I had never had an accident and a claim (personally) or even a ticket for the entire 9 years. We were by law unable to defend ourselves. I couldn't tell the jury that our medical bills or damages had not been paid by the insurance. I couldn't tell the jury that in fact, the defendant's attorney was my own insurance company, I couldn't tell the jury that we were not double dipping but in fact were just wanting justice. I couldn't tell the jury that this was a waste of the tax payers money and the court, It was also a waste of our time. And the amounts of medical that I am talking about were from a little over $2,000, to about $5,000.00 because the amount of medical treatment was different for each of us and that Farmer's refused to pay these amounts and they were not outrageous amounts. I couldn't tell the jury that we told Farmer's at mediation that even though we had pain and suffering that we would be happy just to get made whole. And we weren't. We lost the case and though we were just sitting through a light minding our own business excited about celebrating my daughter's birthday and she hit us, we lost the case, We owe for our own bills even though we were the inocent pary, The jury was misled and our hands were tied. I was told by other's that this is happening every day. The three largest insurance companies have figured out that they can take it to court and that the hands of the injured are tied, They are winning cases like this every day of the week. At least that is what the Baliff said, This loop hole the insurance has to keep from paying lagitament cases where the planiff has a gag order on letting the jury know the entire truth needs to be changed. You want to save some money for the over worked court system and the tax payers? Stop this tactic these insurance companies have found to keep their insured paying faithfully, believing they are insured in case they ever need it only to find out that when they do the insurance doesn't step up and do the right thing. This is beyond my comprehension that this is even happening and that no one is doing anything about it, The court system knows it's happening, certainly the injured people that aren't being made whole know about it. Now you know about it, Please, I know that for us, it's too late but don't let Giant trample on the little people, Please bring justice back into the court house and stop these insurance companies from using the system to make themselves richer and trample on the little people, The wounded, the innocent, I feel like David trying to fight Goliath. I need help, I can't do this without help, Please help the people get justice. Please stop the insurance companies from wasting our taxes and using our overbooked courts over frivalous cases, I humbly ask you, please help stop this. The little people in this country are already suffering so much and those of us that are honest citizens and follow the law should get justice when we are wronged. The victum is being victomized again by these large insurance companies, I can only hope that you have heard my cry for your help on this matter and that you will see the damage it is causing all of us. I hope you care enough to help us change what is happening. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Sincerely, Christy Cooper P.S. I am doing this because I am trying to help all of the other people that this is happening to or that it will happen to in the future. Farmer's insurance is abusing the system and it needs to stop. I realize it's too late for us to get justice but others can be saved from having to suffer all that we have had to suffer and will have to suffer as the result of misuse of the court system my these insurance companies.The injured party is being victamized again by the very insurance company they are paying in case of an accident all because the insurance companies don't want to do the right thing and they have found a way to get away with it through our court system. This needs to change.
Thank you again.
Thank You,
Christy Cooper