If you have been involved in an automobile or 18-wheeler accident in Texas then you may have a number of questions you need answered relating to responsibility and compensation.
If I and/or my family were victims in an automobile accident then will I be required to use my own insurance to pay for medical and/or property damage expenses?
Hopefully not, if the other driver has insurance is ticketed by the police for that would demonstrate he or she may have been negligent in causing the accident then his or her insurance company should be responsible cover the reasonable cost of medical expenses and car repairs.
Sometimes however, in Texas, insurance companies are now extremely aggressive and often deny legitimate claims and force litigation in part because of the rights stripped from Texas families with "tort reform".
In other situations some large well known insurers take such outrageous positions that an innocent victim can not settle his or her own clear liability claim and they are made to either accept an outrageous lowball insurance company settlement offer or hire a personal injury lawyer.
The real adverse consequences to Texas tort reform has been that insurers now routinely force families to file lawsuits on clear liability claims, which is an injustice to the victims and also to the negligent person who now gets sued because his or her insurer required a lawsuit to be fair on the claim. Some insurers use "employee" attorneys to keep their costs down and profits high and many take steps to make sure that the litigation is a costly to bring as possible to the injured victim. Often hiring bogus medical professionals to run up the lawsuit cost to the innocent victim.
There are now a number of frivolous claims in lawsuits in Texas and the vast majority of them are frivolous defenses by the insurance companies in litigation only because of their unfair and bad faith claims handling practices that forced into court a matter that should have been settled.
Other states have taken some of the well know insurers (who reap huge profits in Texas) to court and have not only reduced the outrageous premiums sought but required changes in their claims handling practices- to protect their states families.
Unfortunately, for Texas families, in Texas it does not appear that anyone is trying anything to protect our families from the insurance company abuses we now see in Texas every day.
