What is it about Allstate that everyone loves to hate? Well, when it comes to paying out claims, just about everything. They are often voted as the WORST INSURANCE COMPANY EVER. You were just in a wreck with one of their insureds? Get ready to consult with a legal professional... Here goes:
1. COLOSSUS. Allstate gives its adjusters very little leeway on deciding the value of cases and what they will pay to settle. Colossus is a complex computer program that is designed to reduce [claims] payouts by as much as 20 percent of what the company once paid for the exact same [personal] injuries prior to implementation of the program. “Allstate pushes” car accident victims to accept quick, but very low, settlements. The company deliberately tries to settle injury cases “cheap” before people will hire an injury lawyer. If they are not able to settle your case cheap, they will employ a very aggressive defense strategy to keep you from getting a fair settlement.
2. DELAY, DENY AND DEFEND! In the mid- 1990's, Allstate contracted with the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co. to systematically force consumers to accept lowball case offers or face its “boxing glove" strategy designed to deny claims without just cause. One Allstate employee reported that supervisors told agents to lie and blame fires on arson, and in turn, were rewarded with portable fridges.
The boxing glove approach often is combined with an implied, but sometimes quite explicit, threat that if a customer doesn’t accept what Allstate offers right away, or has the nerve to hire an injury lawyer, then the customer will be punished.
Documents made public in 2008 describe Allstate’s “two-pronged strategy” for “systematically cut[ting] payments to customers as a way to boost profits” and “forc[ing] customers to accept reduced cash payouts or face years in court,” according to the Herald-Tribune’s April 6, 2008, article, “How a get-tough policy lifted Allstate’s profits.” Court documents reveal that Allstate claims adjusters are trained to suggest that the customer will “spend years in court while … bills go unpaid” — a strategy Allstate spelled out in company guidelines for insurance claims adjusters as something that “forces the claimant and attorney to think about the obstacles they must overcome …”
3. IN HOUSE LAWYERS: Allstate typically does not use outside legal firms to handle their basic defense cases. In this way, they do not face high legal fees in the cases they defend. Allstate can work their lawyers overtime with no significant additional costs. They use "in-house" lawyers, meaning that these lawyers are on the payroll of Allstate, but are set up through a dummy corporation that usually styled in the name of one of their in-house lawyers. i.e. The Law Office of Nancy Drew These offices are not at all independent as they appear. They give the impression to their insureds that they are a legitimate law office that exercises independent judgment, but that is just a sham. These guys are on the payroll of Allstate just as their claims adjusters are.
There are arguable ethical issues that Allstate faces by using in-house lawyers to handle their defense. If you are involved in a wreck where you are at fault, you need to closely monitor the defense of your case. Allstate takes an inordinate amount of cases to trial. They have been willing in the past to put their client's assets at risk by going to trial when they should have settled, and have given potential exposure to their insured's personal assets due to their greed of trying to save money.
If You've Been Hit By An Allstate Insured, There Is A Greater Chance You Need A Lawyer
GriffithLaw founder John Griffith has taken Allstate to trial on many occasions, and beaten them every single time. In all candor, Allstate makes it easy because they continually lowball and set the bar so low that it makes the job of defeating them even easier. If you have been treated badly and unfairly by Allstate and want one of the best attorneys in Nashville who actually has taken Allstate to trial and always won, call the attorneys at GriffithLaw today. Time is your enemy.
The sooner you call, the quicker you can protect yourself from their schemes to defeat you.
