Blog- don’t mess with this discount.

By: Robert Bates

When I was a kid I had very strong allegiances with certain sports teams. I can tell you the starting lineup of the 1996 Atlanta Braves. I loved the Braves not only because I loved baseball, but often a Braves game meant a break from farm work. Growing up on a cattle farm there was always work to do but the sentence “dad, the Braves are on” always granted a reprieve and a trip back inside.

Likewise, I grew up in the shadows of Neyland Stadium. I remember playing in the front yard in full Tennessee orange uniform.

As for pro football, I was a cheesehead.

I loved the Packers. Brett Favre and Reggie White were my favorites growing up. Of course, this was before Peyton.

As many Packers fans, I had a choice a few years ago when there was a transition from the gunslinger Favre to the new California boy Aaron Rodgers. To the surprise of many, Rodgers was and still is brilliant. A flick of his wrist can lead to a 60-yard touchdown at any given moment.

With that popularity came the overkill car insurance commercials. The psychology behind these repetitious commercials is for another day. I want to focus on one commercial in particular, which the “don’t mess with my discount” commercials.

In short, insurance companies want to track your driving habits under the guise of a discount for “safe driving.”

Let’s think this through. A car insurance company wants to know precisely how fast you’re driving your car, truck, or motorcycle at all times.

Insurance companies will rarely be indicted for original thought, so of course, other companies are doing the same thing. Flo has been advocating for a plugin thing to monitor your driving. Another company is still using the deep-voiced guy from the hit show “24.” And they’re even using the always funny and beloved Tina Fay.

Let’s put some hair on the dog.

What could possibly be wrong with this tracking technology? Imagine your loved is hit in a t-bone collision and there’s no way it was their fault. A car, motorcycle, or truck accident we see regularly.

But they’re unconscious or worse. And it just so happens that the other driver has the same insurance as your loved one. The insurance company starts building the case against your loved one right away.

They start arguing: “ya know he had a history of speeding before this accident,” “5 minutes before the car wreck, he didn’t use his turn signal,” “he was 7 miles per hour over the speed limit prior to the wreck,” “I bet he was doing something wrong at the time of the wreck, and we’re not responsible for the wreck with our truck.”

Now you may think I’m being cynical. You may think that it works both ways. That we would be able to get this data from the insurance company to show the defendant was in the wrong. If you think so, I have some beachfront property I want to sell you.

You see, the insurance company that represents the defendant isn’t technically a party to a lawsuit. So they have the advantage of doing many things in the background without any consequence. I would say 98% of the folks I’ve represented over the last decade have told me, “well, the adjuster said they knew it was their fault, and they’d take care of all my bills.” They say this because they can, and you can’t hold them to it. Another blog for another day.

Summary: A small discount isn’t worth the risk of shooting yourself in the foot when you have a claim in the future. Even if you like Aaron Rodgers.

Robert Bates is a local trial lawyer with proven results. Located near Meadowview in Kingsport, he fights for folks who have been injured due to slip and fall accidents, medical malpractice, car accidents, truck accidents and motorcycle accidents. Focusing 100% of his practice on personal injury, Robert has won cases throughout East Tennessee including: Kingsport, Johnson City, Bristol, Erwin, Elizabethton, Unicoi, Mountain City, Rogersville, Blountville, Morristown, Washburn, Pigeon Forge, Knoxville and everywhere in between.

Robert BatesRobert is a Kingsport trial lawyer who handles car, truck and motorcycle wreck cases across the Tri-Cities. Every client gets his cell number.