can insurance companies endanger lives?

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

No he is not there to help you. Neither is he there to help the underwriter.
His job is to determine "Cause, Nature, Extent" ... period.

At no time did an underwriter ever try to influence my work.

You are confusing being honest with who you have a responsibility to. It's a common issue for professionals to face.

Your responsibility is to the insurance company as they hired you but that doesn't mean you are allowed as a professional to lie, mislead or falsify the results.

This is similar to a lawyer. A defense lawyer has a responsibility to represent his client and try to get him out of any guilty verdict (or at least minimize the charges that he is found guilty of) but that doesn't mean a lawyer is allowed to lie to the court. While this will bring out all kinds of jokes about an honest lawyer being an oxymoron, if the court catches a lawyer in a lie, expect the court to take a harsh view.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

You are confusing being honest with who you have a responsibility to. It's a common issue for professionals to face.

Your responsibility is to the insurance company as they hired you but that doesn't mean you are allowed as a professional to lie, mislead or falsify the results.

This is similar to a lawyer. A defense lawyer has a responsibility to represent his client and try to get him out of any guilty verdict (or at least minimize the charges that he is found guilty of) but that doesn't mean a lawyer is allowed to lie to the court. While this will bring out all kinds of jokes about an honest lawyer being an oxymoron, if the court catches a lawyer in a lie, expect the court to take a harsh view.

I disagree. The contract I worked under (written by ythe underwriter) said specifically that my job was to"deternine the cause, nature and extent of the claim". I think thats pretty clear and there has never, ever been even a hint that anything else was expected.

Never once was I even asked a question about any report I submitted, not even a couple that exceeded one million.

On two occassions I was hired as an expert witness against underwriters that I did work for. Even that had no effect on our business relationship. Curoiusly one of those was a lightning claim on a boat that was struck twice within 10 minutes in fron of hundreds of witnesses. The underwriters surveyor found only about $30k in damage and that was all that was offered to the insured.

The insured hired me to check the surveyors work. I thought it was a write-off and off we went to court. The insured received a little over a million when the dust settled. It did'n stop the underwriter from hiring me again.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

I disagree. The contract I worked under (written by ythe underwriter) said specifically that my job was to"deternine the cause, nature and extent of the claim". I think thats pretty clear and there has never, ever been even a hint that anything else was expected.

Never once was I even asked a question about any report I submitted, not even a couple that exceeded one million.

Of course, they won't write you a contract that specifically states to lie and fabricate information in their favor. That doesn't mean you don't have a responsibility to the insurance company first and foremost and in the event of a court case ever arose, it would make anything in your report highly suspect, so in addition to being highly unethical, it would make any legal action a slam dunk for the insured when they could prove the insurance company was trying to manipulate the outcome thru illicit means.

So long as no one is doing anything illicit, it works just fine with you being responsible to the insurance company. If you are producing good quality honest reports, there is no conflict between your professional ethics and your responsibility to the insurance company.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Of course, they won't write you a contract that specifically states to lie and fabricate information in their favor. That doesn't mean you don't have a responsibility to the insurance company first and foremost and in the event of a court case ever arose, it would make anything in your report highly suspect, so in addition to being highly unethical, it would make any legal action a slam dunk for the insured when they could prove the insurance company was trying to manipulate the outcome thru illicit means.

So long as no one is doing anything illicit, it works just fine with you being responsible to the insurance company. If you are producing good quality honest reports, there is no conflict between your professional ethics and your responsibility to the insurance company.

I don't know how much experience you've had with insurance claims but clearly mine has been different than yours.