by William23 » Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:57 am
Hi. Everyone on ampminsure. My girlfriend is in this situation. She lives in this big apartment complex. She trip and fell on this defect near the step. After the fall she didnt go to the doctors until a few days later. My girlfriend isnt the type to run to the doctors for a little pain. She knows that is just took a fall and of course she is going to feel pain. But after a few days the pain got worse. She went to the doctor and they put her on pain meds and a splint. Doctor said her body may heal and resolve the injury or it may require surgery. After that she hired an atty. Later on she and her atty discontinue the services for a reason. She was trying to handle it on her own. Finally after the investigation was done the adjuster deny the claim. The adjuster states the reasons for the deny is 1. The hazard was not report to the owner, 2. Residents of the didnt see hazard and 3. There was no witness or proof it happen there. Owner was notified by atty and picture of defect.
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 10:35 pm Post Subject:
It was part of a railing system. It was next to the steps going upstairs to the apartments. She was just walking. Your right tscope no wants to even get involve. There a few other people who might have seen it but they moved. This situation has been going on for a while. My girlfriend went for a long drive to see if she can find one of the old tenants but was unsuccessful. Could she ask one of her friends if they ever seen it? The adjuster never told her about if any seen it. He just asked her if any seen the incident. If the adjuster want that kind of info he should of told my gf before. Now it is hard to find people who move. If she happens to find a person who seen it prior is there a special format or a certain way its suppose to be written?
Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 03:08 pm Post Subject:
Hellooooooo anyone there. Tscope can you give me an answer please. You have been very helpful.
Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 03:23 pm Post Subject:
[had this reply sitting on my computer and never finished it]
There is a good chance that the person won't want to get involved. That should be fine... as it's the information that there is a person that is important. Your girlfriend can simply tell the adjuster that Jane in apartment 18 says xxx. When I worked as an independent I use to try to work getting the person's first name into the conversation. Make it sound like you just want to be polite when speaking to the person. Ask for their first name before pressing for any more information in case then shut down.
At that point you've told the adjuster that this person is out there, with information that shows their finding may be incorrect. At that point the insurance company should pursue obtaining this information for themselves. They have more of a duty to investigate the matter and it's simply in their best interest as if suit is filed, they would need to look into the matter anyway and a suit is going to cost them money regardless of the outcome.
I'd say a defective rail should be pretty obvious. It's not like it is something that the property owner should never see. Is it reasonable that a property owner is going to check something like a rail? I say very much so! It's probably required per building codes and there for a good reason.
You may need to hire an attorney to get the adjuster to move. But you can try several things first. Have your girlfriend draft a letter and mail it to the property owner and cc the insurance company. Let them know that you want to avoid using an attorney and filing suit against them but if they are not willing to settle this, you see no choice. You can also point out that you feel the property manager did no provide a safe environment and that they _should_ have known that the rail was defective. In that they may not have is beside the point and only shows that they were not inspecting the property to make sure it was safe. Point out that the property owner owes a great deal of care in providing a safe area due to the tenant/landlord relationship.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 03:20 pm Post Subject:
Thank you so mubh tscope. I will pass this information to my girlfriend. Also i have one more thing to run by you. My girlfriend took pictures of the defect. She didnt notice the defect because the piece of the railing system was gone. But than when she hire the atty that she currently dont have anymore a week after the accident the piece of railing came back. We believe the owner removed it and bought it back. Why he didnt fix it i have no clue probably just lazy and dont care. I was reading a site this site and it said code violations often prove negligence. The site of the incident all tenants have to use it to get their mail. Some have to use it to get inside. He is require to keep areas like this in good condition and repair. With all this i dont see my the adjuster would deny. My gf will take your advice and write the letter hopefully it gets some where. She really dont a lawyer most really dont care about the injured. They just see a chance for money and being greedy. Thanks once again a ton.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 03:24 pm Post Subject:
I mean "how the adjuster" not "my the adjuster". Sorry for the error.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 03:42 pm Post Subject:
What a second... if I understand this correctly, the owner removed a part of the railing. This in some way caused your girlfriend to fall, and then it was put back by the owner? If so, the insurance company can't state that the owner did not know about the problem... they _created_ the problem. If your girlfriend has photos of the piece missing, has she sent copies into the adjuster? Did she explain to the adjuster that the owner removed the piece?
She really dont a lawyer most really dont care about the injured. They just see a chance for money and being greedy.
I would agree that 99.999% of injury attorneys simply want the money. But if they get money in their own pockets it also means the obtained compensation for their client and compensation is "justice". So it's difficult to separate these two things. To be honest, do I do my job to help people? I'd like to think I'm helping people but that is not why I do it. I do it because I think it's interesting and it pays my bills. So can I blame injury attorneys if they do the same thing? But there are some attorneys who would much rather take a low payment and not do any work instead of really looking out for their clients interests. But there are bad people in every line of work.Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 04:27 pm Post Subject:
Im not sure who moved it. But at the time of the fall the piece was gone but than a week later its there. Im pretty sure he is the one who did this. And when he placed it back he still didnt fix it. When the atty investigator came a week later it was still like that.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 04:31 pm Post Subject:
Also at the time their was no children living their at the time of the accident. So he cant blame it on any children.
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 01:12 pm Post Subject:
No my girlfriend havent sent the photos yet. She forgot about them until she was going through her digital camera. She only sent the pictures the atty investigator took when she hired them a week later after the incident. We than notice when we was looking at the photos she took after the accident that the piece wasnt there but than when we look at the ones the investigator took it was there not fixed but it was just leaning there.
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 02:06 pm Post Subject:
no she havent send the pictures to the adjuster. She forgot she took pictures after the accident until she was going in here digital camera and seen them. Than she called me and said the pictures she took was different from the pictures the atty investigator took a week after the accident. Than she showed me that the pictures she took didnt have the piece of railing. Because to say it just broke it should be laying around the area somewhere it was no where. But than we looked at the pictures the investigator took a week later it was there not fixed but just leaning against the side. We believe the landlord did this. Who else would take it than just put it back its not valuable it just a old piece of the railing.
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