Duty to Pursue Liability Insurance in Texas

1) Pursuing a Negligence Claim Leads Better Behavior:

Many people appear to believe that there is an overabundance of people out there faking an injury in order to collect on the avalanche of dollars that insurance companies are dumping all over fraudulent claims. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Insurers are so difficult to deal with these days that I can’t think of any job that would be more difficult or require more effort than faking an injury to make money.

In reality, pursuing your injury claim after a car accident helps to reinforce “good behavior.”

If the community (or a jury) decides to hold people accountable for their “choices” and illegal behavior, the community will become a safer place. For example, if a driver is held liable for an injury he caused in a car accident and his insurance company, his business, or he himself is forced to pay, his insurance rates will rightfully rise, and the burden of the harms, such as medical bills, lost income, and property damage, will rightfully be placed on the wrongdoer’s shoulders.

This causes at least some of these people to reconsider engaging in similar behavior in the future. The imposition of this burden on the wrongdoer will alter the behavior of at least some of those held accountable. This can and does save the lives and health of innocent families and victims who have been injured or killed as a result of the actions of these people. This is accomplished by having a deterrent effect on that individual from repeating the same unsafe, dangerous, or criminal activity in the future.

If the community (or a jury) decides to give the wrongdoer a pass by allowing the negligent, dangerous, or even criminal activity to go on without paying for what was caused by the behavior or to go unpunished when punishment is appropriate under the law, the community sends the message that this person’s behavior is acceptable. That wrongdoer will continue to act in the same manner as before because they will feel vindicated. The message sent is that their behavior is not only “just an accident,” but that a court and jury have actually endorsed their behavior. As a result, more people are put at risk to be killed, injured, or suffer other harm by the lack of deterrence.

Who pays for the medical bills, lost earning capacity, and health destruction if the person who caused the injury and death is not held accountable and forced to pay for their actions?

The injured person will have two options:

a) If they have health insurance: Copays, deductibles, and uncovered costs that they will have to pay, as well as lost income and productivity that they will be forced to forego under their health insurance plan. These costs are frequently unpaid because they are too high for the person or their family to bear while attempting to cover bills while their loved one is recovering and unable to work or contribute to the family.

b) If they do not have health insurance: The bill then goes unpaid because an injured person who cannot afford health insurance is typically unable to pay for hospitalization. Additionally, since they are injured, they are unable to work for a period of time while recovering from their injury – meaning they have less money than even normal, leaving most people in this situation with debt that may never leave their credit record. This causes them to fall behind on their other bills and puts them in a position where they have no way of paying the outstanding medical bills.

2) Pursuing an injury case creates a safer, more financially secure community. 

The duty to pursue liability insurance against wrongdoers creates a safer and more financially secure community. If the wrongdoer does not pay these outstanding bills, and if the injured person is unable to do so, who will? The people in the community end up paying, that is who pays. The community pays in the form of higher taxes to cover unpaid injuries and tax breaks given to medical facilities and hospitals as a result of unpaid bills. The community pays in the form of higher medical bill rates and hospital rates; they must cover their losses in some way.

As a result of those wrongdoers who cause the injury refusing to pay for the harms and losses they caused (and their liability insurers who refuse to pay as well), those people who CAN afford to pay medical bills are forced to pay higher amounts for medical bills. The community suffers by paying higher medical bills and taxes.

When courts, legislators, and communities refuse to hold negligent, dangerous, or criminal behavior accountable then it is everyone else who pays for what the wrongdoer or their insurance policy should pay. The community, in general, has their insurance rates rise to make up for the wrongdoer’s insurance rates NOT going up as they would have, had they been held responsible. Additionally, the community suffers because negligent, dangerous, and criminal behavior is allowed to occur with no deterrence. This encourages more of it, resulting in more accidents that lead to more injuries and more deaths from those accidents.

These are the common-sense and even ancient reasons why countries all over the western world for hundreds of years have held that the laws should hold wrongdoers accountable. Recent arguments created by economists who are in liability insurers’ pockets have created a perverse argument against logic, and against ancient wisdom.

The law rightly requires people to take responsibility for their actions and pay for the harm they caused if they are negligent, or commit a crime, or disobey a regulation or rule, or engage in a dangerous activity and then cause damage, harm, or injury to another.

These are also the reasons why, if you have been injured in a car accident caused by someone else who chooses to act negligently, break the law, disobey a regulation, or engage in dangerous behavior, the community, and people within the community, have a duty to pursue justice and force wrongdoers and their insurers to accept responsibility. The message should always be clear that negligent, reckless, and criminal behavior is unacceptable. This deters many people from engaging in negligent, reckless, criminal, or other dangerous behavior. In the process, lives are saved and injuries avoided. The fault system plays a role in shifting the burden of bad behavior to those who deserve it: the person or people who caused the death or injury, rather than placing the burden on the community or on the innocent victim.