Based on Michigan Auto Law attorneys’ personal experience with our own cases, we believe Everest National Insurance Company is denying No Fault PIP medical coverage, wage loss, and forcing people to hire lawyers to sue for insurance protections
If you think climbing the mountain is daunting, then try getting auto No Fault insurance benefits out of this insurance company.
Based on the personal experiences and opinions of the 18 insurance attorneys here at Michigan Auto Law, who devote our practices to helping injured auto accident victims, Everest National Insurance Company is living up to its mountainous namesake. It’s proving to pose a nearly insurmountable obstacle for car accident victims who need Michigan No Fault PIP benefits that Everest is legally required to provide. These include critical auto insurance benefits such as necessary medical care and treatment, wage loss, attendant care – all PIP benefits guaranteed to insured drivers under the Michigan No Fault Act.
Specifically, based on the cases that our own attorneys have litigated with Everest, it’s been both our experience and our belief that this auto insurance company is denying No Fault coverage. What we’re seeing includes the following:
- An almost knee-jerk, automatic refusal by many Everest claims adjusters to pay claims for No Fault PIP medical benefits.
- Putting claims under investigation as a way to avoid paying incurred and outstanding No Fault benefits.
- Denying coverage and rescinding No Fault insurance policies after people who have been injured in motor vehicle accidents submit claims.
- In litigation, we are seeing stonewalling and fighting legal discovery.
- These denials and putting many claims under investigation is causing many Michigan car accident victims who would otherwise not have needed to hire a lawyer with no other option than to hire an attorney to file a lawsuit to recover auto No Fault insurance benefits that Everest should be paying voluntarily on many of these claims.
We’re also aware — from reports from other Michigan personal injury attorneys that Everest frequently accuses auto accident victims of “misrepresentation” of facts. See the attached document, which is from a brief filed in response to an Everest summary disposition motion to, you may have already guessed, rescind coverage to someone who’s making a claim.
This is despite the fact that Everest either refuses to and/or cannot present documentary proof of the so-called misrepresentation at the time they’re suspending claims and putting them under investigation and/or how it may have affected the underwriting of the policy and, thus the premium that was ultimately charged for the policy. Note that the underwriting is reportedly done by computer software rather than human underwriters.
Our attorneys have also read many posts from other Michigan lawyers on the Michigan Association for Justice listserve who are reporting similar experiences with Everest.
Everest Insurance appears to have made the deliberate decision to follow in the steps of Allstate and State Farm and pursue a deny, delay, defend approach to handling auto accident and No Fault PIP claims for medical and wage loss. This is forcing our attorneys at Michigan Auto Law to file suit on nearly every single case we have with Everest. This unjustly delays promised protections under the Michigan No Fault law that all motor vehicle accident victims expect to receive and which they need for their recovery and rehabilitation.
This is also wasting the courts’ time and resources on needless PIP litigation and lawsuits that further slows down dockets on legitimate cases.
I personally believe Everest National Insurance Company’s claims handling deserves investigation by the Insurance Commissioner, i.e., the Director of the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS).
Until that happens, I hope this blog post will put other Michigan auto accident attorneys and injury victims on notice and to proceed with caution with this insurance company.
