Category: Insurance Company Tactics
In our last post, we began discussing the ways that insurers monitor and use claimants’ social media for the purposes of denying applications or cutting off benefits. Here are three more important things to understand about how insurers look at your online activities. Privacy Settings May Not Matter It is wise to set your social […]
We’ve written before about the potential pitfalls of participating on social media while you have an active disability insurance claim. Now more than ever, insurers monitor claimants’ online activities because it is an inexpensive way to gather information, and so many people use at least one social media platform, like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. In […]
Independent Medical Exams (IMEs) are a standard part of insurance claims. An IME is an exam that’s arranged and paid for by the insurer. It’s meant to be a neutral second opinion about your disability or health condition, and is performed by someone who has not previously been involved in your case or assessment in […]
In today’s post about personal injury myths and misconceptions, we’re talking about surveillance. Sometimes we hear clients say that they’re afraid that if they start a lawsuit, the insurance company will start doing surveillance on them. Is that true? Fact: Insurance companies use surveillance in many different situations – not just in cases where a […]
Earlier in this series we talked about how missed deadlines, excluded conditions, insufficient medical evidence and not meeting the definition of “total disability” can result in a denied LTD claim. Today, we’re sharing two more common reasons that insurers reject LTD applications. Surveillance Insurance companies will go to great lengths to verify that you are […]
Did you hear the story of Samuel Archibald? He’s a Canadian author who made headlines when he went public after his disability claim for depression was denied because the insurer said photos he’d posted on Instagram and other social media sites showed he looked active, in shape and happy. Unfortunately, as Mr. Archibald discovered when […]
The Toronto Sun newspaper recently reported on a case in which an auto insurer had used particularly aggressive tactics to defend a claim brought by a young woman who had endured catastrophic injuries during a rear-end vehicle collision when she was only 17 years old. As described in the Sun article, the arbitration lasted 16 […]
For those who have been involved in a motor vehicle accident and are dealing with an insurer, it may be reassuring to know that under Canadian law, an insurer has a legally-established duty of “good faith” towards its insured. This is because the relationship between an insurer and the insured is determined and governed by […]
An important recent decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal highlights a vital fact for insured persons, namely that an insurer that has denied or discontinued benefits is under no legal obligation to advise the insured of the firm statutory deadline for appealing that decision. The facts of the case involved a self-employed eavestrough installer […]
Would an insurance company be so driven to deny benefits to an injured person that they would spend more on medical assessments than on actual injury compensation? It sounds too ludicrous to be true. And yet, a recent and revealing article in the National Post summarizes an Insurance Bureau of Canada report that says yes, […]