Cornelius Frolik of Middletown Journal examines that all across the United States, claims entailing slips and falls are on a steady incline, which may be directly correlated with the decline in the economy. As we know, slip-and-fall claims ultimately lead to higher insurance premiums for everyone, but these claims also usually produce large payouts and costly lawsuits.
Mary Bonelli, the spokeswoman for the Ohio Insurance Institute, states that “Many people have legitimate accidents in stores and businesses, but there is a growing number of cases that have some indicators of potential fraud.”
Frank Scafidi, spokesman of the National Insurance Crime Bureau says that “The majority of slip-and-fall insurance claims arise from legitimate accidents, but some falls are staged by unscrupulous individuals who target businesses and their insurance companies in the hopes of earning sizable paydays.”
Just to throw out some numbers, approximately 2,168 questionable slip-and-fall claims were sent to the National Insurance Crime Bureau for review in 2011, compared to 1,944 the year before.
Proactive Approach to Slip-and-fall Claims:
Installation of surveillance equipment
Always write an incident report
Interview all of the witnesses present at the scene of the fall
Photograph the scene
Save any surveillance video for future reference
Reactive Approach:
Most small businesses are not able to afford surveillance/security systems, and without hard evidence, it may be almost impossible to disprove the case. Call ICU Investigations to set up surveillance of the claimant, and we’ll be sure to collect the evidence needed to clear up any doubt.