The legal advice of an experienced Macon County personal injury attorney can help you understand and prepare for dealing with an insurance adjuster.

“Please Sign a Medical Authorization Form”

Your Macon County personal injury attorney will inform you that adjusters often ask a claimant to authorize them to access his or her medical history by signing a form giving medical authorization. This form gives the adjuster access to your complete medical history, which may include preexisting medical conditions and issues that have no relation to your claim.

Your Macon County personal injury attorney will advise that you should exercise caution if asked to sign a medical authorization form. Your attorney knows that adjusters can play upon a claimant’s willingness to cooperate in the hopes that it will increase the chance of a prompt and decent settlement. Likewise, an adjuster may convince you that it will be more convenient to let him or her obtain the needed documentation of medical bills and reports so that your claim can be evaluated and validated. Your Macon County personal injury attorney will advise that instead of facilitating your claim’s payment, the authorization may end up hurting your claim instead.

Your Macon County personal injury attorney knows that generally, a claimant is under no legal obligation to sign an authorization form in order to obtain recovery under an insurance liability policy. While it is true that a policyholder must abide by a “cooperation clause” outlined in the “conditions” section of most policies, the “conditions” are not applicable to third-party claimants filing an injury claim. Therefore, if an adjuster states that you are obligated to sign an authorization form before you can receive any payment, he or she may be misrepresenting the law as well as the particular insurance policy.

What You Need to Do

Your Macon County personal injury lawyer will advise that you:

• Exercise caution about signing any and all medical authorization forms.
• Refuse to sign an authorization with an indefinite time period. An authorization should clearly state the time period it is effective.
• Refuse an “open-ended” authorization form.
• Make sure the authorization is limited to reports and bills related to the specific incident and treatment that resulted from the accident.

Contact a Macon County Personal Injury Lawyer

Dealing with an insurance adjuster can be difficult and confusing. If you would like to obtain the services of an experienced and knowledgeable Macon County personal injury attorney, please contact the law offices of McCarthy Rowden & Baker at 800-373-6050 to schedule a free consultation.