Starting a Walmart Slip and Fall Claim
According to Walmart’s corporate site, there are 5,214 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations in the U.S. Needless to say, there are ALOT of injuries on store premises. So much so, that there is an entire company dedicated to managing and mitigating injury claims.
If you have been hurt in Walmart slip and fall accident, you have likely had the displeasure of dealing with Walmart or a company called “CMI” first hand. So we are here to give you a little info on the who, what, why and how of the first step in a Walmart slip and fall claim.
Who is Claims Management, Inc., or CMI?
Claims Management, Inc. or CMI for short, is an entity that has been setup to investigate and administer claims for Walmart’s insurance company. To our knowledge, CMI has no other clients, only Walmart , kind-of cozy right? CMI representatives do not work for Walmart directly, but why setup a separate entity at all, unless you want to keep the relationship a secret.
CMI keeps calling, and calling, and calling – They must really care about me…
If you had a slip and fall accident, workplace accident, or any other accident at Walmart, a CMI representative will be contacting you. The CMI representatives are nothing if not persistent, they will call and call and call, until they can pin you down. You must be thinking, they really care about me and want to help. Not likely, they are tasked with investigating each Walmart accident claim, but they go well past investigating, a better description is dissecting each claim.
The CMI representatives will often sound very sympathetic and caring… at first anyway. The tone of the CMI rep will change as you go through the claims process, often beginning concerned and friendly, but ultimately turning nasty. Secret, mentioning you are thinking about speaking with a lawyer to a CMI representative will have same type of impact as light does to Dracula.
Why does CMI want to record my statement so badly?
Remember we mentioned dissecting each claim, pinning you down with a recorded statement is priority number one for CMI representative. CMI are experts in making the request for a recorded statement sound like no big deal, sounding like its almost a mandatory part of the process. The secret you need to know, you are not required to give CMI a recorded statement after a Walmart accident. In fact, we advise people to never give a recorded statement to CMI.
Why not give the recorded statement? The answer is simple, there is zero benefit to you giving them a recorded statement, and you don’t owe them one. The big Walmart slip and fall secret revealed below will shed more light as to why you should not give a recorded statement after you are injured. Be ready, once you say no to the recorded statement the CMI representative may be angry, sad, and will try with all their might to convince you to give them the statement, don’t.
Why did CMI ask me to send in my medical bills (and medical records), but they did not pay them?
We call this the free look. CMI claims representatives are experts in manipulation, asking you to send in your medical bills and medical records are one of the tricks of the trade. They ask you to send these in, you honestly think they are looking out for you and will take care of the bills, but they never said that specifically. The representatives will make it sound as if they will take care of the medical bills and are concerned over your injury, but they are trained to never say the magic words “we will pay your medical bills”.
The secret here, CMI will use the medical records and medical bills to build their investigative file … against you. It is not uncommon for you to not be able to get in contact with your CMI representative after you have given them these records, the reason is you have given them the free look they were hoping for. Keep an eye on your mailbox as well, often times you will be on the receiving end of denial letter for your injury claim from CMI after providing them your medical records.
The big Walmart slip and fall secret reveal: CMI’s real purpose is to help Walmart avoid liability for your accident.
CMI was established to help Walmart figure out how not to pay your injury claim. The tactics that CMI uses have been expertly developed to use every effort to avoid fault for your accident. If they cannot come up with a way to try and avoid liability, they will make every effort to minimize your injury. They will try to look for every reason under the sun that your injury is not related to the slip and fall accident, most common excuses: you hurt yourself before, your condition is degenerative i.e. you are old, or just plain you are not injured. CMI uses these tricks across the board for accident claims against Walmart, including workplace accident, but don’t take our word for it – check out t ripoffreport for more information.
How to use these Walmart slip and fall secrets to your Advantage.
When people are injured, they are often at their most vulnerable, and Walmart through CMI will try to take every advantage they can. Understanding the Walmart slip and fall claim secrets reveled in this post is the first step in combating these tactics. The next step we recommend is speaking with a personal injury lawyer about your Walmart accident. A skilled injury lawyer will help you avoid the pitfalls, which can possibly be the difference in whether your accident case is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, or going it alone and getting zero. Proving a slip and fall injury case against Walmart is difficult enough, giving Walmart and CMI ammunition can be fatal to your case.
Remember, if you have been injured in a slip and fall at Walmart, or any other accident at Walmart stores, do yourself a favor and contact us.
