OK, we accept that we live in a new world where the President of the United States has a “I’m Fake News” label stitched to the back of every suit jacket. This is a world where law, justice, wrong and more wrong mean very little. But aside from the Trump vacuum the rest of society must still be the same sane self. Maybe not…
The news media have reported on a minor insurance claim by an 84-year-old lady who claimed injury when she was rear-ended in a motor vehicle crash. The insurer reportedly would not pay the requested $20,000 claim and would not even pay a reduced claim of just $10,000 before the matter went into court. At trial the jury awarded the the claimant her $20,000. But then the judge awarded an additional $237,000 to her for her legal fees. If the claimant’s legal fees were rightly $237,000, would the insurer with the deep pockets also be expected to have similar legal expenditures? And one could consider all the other costs, of the court’s time etc., which would likely amount to a total cost of this caper of over half a million dollars.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada has made many advertisements over the years of the cost of fraud and how that cost is eventually passed on by the insurer to the insurance premiums of the insureds’. Thus it is an incentive for all to report any incidents of fraud. So when an insurer takes a hard stance in this mentioned small claim and the costs are over half a million dollars guess who eventually pays? It is not the insurer. It is joyfully passed on to the average payer of insurance premiums. Nothing more needs to be said.