Insurance Companies are NOT all the same

Insurance companies cycle up and down between reasonably paying claims, and fighting everything.  At the moment, State Farm is killing itself by refusing to reasonably pay claims.

How bad is it?  In a recent case that could have been settled for less than $22,000, they spent more than $148,000 in legal expenses fighting it, while never offering more than $8,500.00.  By the way, they never once contended that the accident was not caused by their insured.

In multiple cases our office has handled in the past few months, their insureds were saddled with judgments in cases that should have been settled with far less expense and hassle for both sides.

Of course, the Insurance Commissioner does not control this kind of bad conduct.  Worse, as a large insurance company, they can afford to lose the cases at trial, and pay off the verdicts, even when they come in for more than the policy limits.

Over the years, every insurance company that has chosen this reckless path has eventually backed off.  It is far too expensive, but more important, it kills their public image.

State Farm closed most of their neighborhood claims offices a few years ago.  Recently, they closed their Rohnert Park office that employed 450 people.  Every year they lose market share to Geico and Progressive, whose successful advertising campaigns State Farm is now unsuccessfully trying to match.  Things have gotten so bad that they even got into litigation with some of their agents.

Trying to settle the injury portion of any motorcycle accident case is always difficult, but the kind of bad conduct we are seeing from State Farm is worse than anything I have seen in years.