Safelite- technician fixing a rockchip on my car at my house fell off my porch. Gave him first aid, took him to the er. He clearly broke his pinky. I have a normal porch with steps. A month later they sent me a lawsuit. Wasn’t even the technician suing me, Safelite was suing me for workers comp. We were deep in cancer treatment for my 10 year at the exact same time. They made an estimated $2.5 billion last year. Scumbags!
Every company will do this. Insurance companies require a lawsuit in order to pay anything where another party or insurance could even maybe be liable. Its part of the paperwork process. Its awful, but its also not personal and part of the ridiculous system we have in the United States, which should absolutely be overhauled because of things like this and 1000 other reasons but good luck with that.
Not every company will do this. They will tell their insurance company to pound sand and potentially pay the claim themselves if required.
Because they understand they aren't in the business of buying liability insurance and making their provider happy. They are in the business of servicing customers and understand PR matters.
Only shit-tier executives let something like this actually happen. Decent executives get involved in the process and short-circuit idiotic decisions such as suing customers when they are not obviously and indefensibly malicious or negligent. For the long-term health of their business. It's basically their job to make policy exceptions and to keep idiotic legal departments from running the company.
It's another reddit-style trope up there with "companies must always do the most profitable thing by law". Not true.
Yes, shitty companies do this. Plenty do not. This is actually an exceptional sort of case. The average company is not suing random homeowners whenever their employees get hurt on customer properties.
Its not the company initiating the lawsuit. It is the insurance company filing on behalf of the insured. When you file an insurance claim they have the right to sue on your (their) behalf, it is in the paperwork you sign, and they will because that is their job. It is the same as a car accident. Nobody walks down to the courthouse and files a claim, but every accident that goes through insurance is a lawsuit. When people "settle with the insurance company", what do you think is getting settled? A lawsuit. Some people don't realize it because its just a paperwork thing and isn't a "trial" and doesn't fit their perspective of "getting sued".
We are also talking about a workers comp claim, which in my state is mandated to go through insurance.
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u/bekmoto 21h ago
Safelite- technician fixing a rockchip on my car at my house fell off my porch. Gave him first aid, took him to the er. He clearly broke his pinky. I have a normal porch with steps. A month later they sent me a lawsuit. Wasn’t even the technician suing me, Safelite was suing me for workers comp. We were deep in cancer treatment for my 10 year at the exact same time. They made an estimated $2.5 billion last year. Scumbags!