Requests for Information: Look at the Bright Side of Jumping Through Hoops
At the most basic level personal injury work is about information.
At the outset of a case we gather information.
Then we package it up--usually in the form of a story--and send it off to the insurance company.
Invariably the insurance company will ask for more information. Most of the time we can obtain and provide it. But sometimes we have to ask clients for help.
By this point in the process most clients want money. They don't want projects. And they particularly feel aggrieved when it seems like the insurance company is stalling or giving them the run-around.
So we get push-back: "Why the hell do they want ___________________?"
The blank can be filled in with a variety of things. Five years of tax returns. Ten years of medical records. Scores entered at the golf course. Information about the number of gym visits in 2024.
I hate having my time wasted. And can empathize with clients when it feels like there is moving target.
But--and I'm the least likely person to act as an apologist for insurance companies--frequently these inane seeming requests are actually a good thing.
Insurance companies are suspicious by nature. They doubt claimants. And they doubt their own employees. (All is yellow through the jaundiced eye.)
Claims representatives are carefully monitored. And their files are audited. Did they have all the information they really needed (or the insurance company thought they needed) before paying limits or offering $X to settle a claim?
Rather than trying to divine the "meaning" of a lot of these requests I think it's better to just provide the information with the mindset that the claims representative is jumping through hoops too. We want to make it as easy as possible for that person to write us a big check.
Does cooperation always mean a policy limits offer? No. But it makes it more likely. And if it turns out the adjuster was wasting our time, we'll make sure to even things up after suit is filed.
I have a generous spirit and a long memory.