People always ask me why I love to help people who have insurance claims. Here’s why:
The experience in my life that most inspired me to become a lawyer who fights insurance companies hit close to home. It was 1991, and I was away from home in my first year of Law School. One night I got a call from my mom. Upset and afraid, she told me she’d been burglarized. I reassured her that the insurance company would help her cover all the losses from stolen items, so she wouldn’t have to worry about that.
How naive that was! As it turned out, the process of going through the insurance claim was harder than the break-in itself. At every turn, the insurance adjuster threw hurdles in her way and tried to low ball her for each and every item that had been stolen. Even though she had been making premium payments for more than two decades, they treated her like she had done something wrong.
I tried to help out in every way I could, but since I was young and inexperienced, I didn’t know what could be done to get the insurance company to play fair, and to fully compensate her for what she had lost to a thief. The company presented a “take it or leave it” attitude, and that made us feel helpless about getting a fair shake.
I’ve since learned, through education and experience, how to level the playing field for individuals unburying from a difficult or devastating experience. They can turn to me to be their advocate for negotiating with a company whose CEO likely makes one of the top-paid employees in the whole country. In a courtroom, these mammoth insurance companies have to answer to a jury of citizens, not shareholders. Though most cases never have to deal with a courtroom trial, what keeps the playing field fair is the leverage of a trial. It forces insurance companies to treat people fairly and compensate them for the full, fair value of their claim.
If you have been hurt in an auto accident, or you’ve sustained a personal injury, know that you don’t have to face the insurance company alone. Let me know how I can help you. I’ve been serving the Bellingham and Whatcom County community for many years. For more information and stories about how I’ve won cases and claims, click here, and to reach me, I’m just a phone call or email away.