Are You in Good Hands?

They call themselves the "good hands people" and in their television and radio ads tell you how lucky you are to be insured by them. And you may be -- unless of course you refuse one of their lowball settlement offers and decide to litigate a claim against them.

For ten years Allstate has hidden a dirty little secret from policyholders: in the 1990s they made a conscious decision to play hardball with claimants, forcing them to accept artifically low settlements or be subjected to scorched earth litigation tactics for years. At the heart of the policy decision are 12,000 pages of documents detailing the system Allstate implemented to strong arm claimants and stall litigation -- documents that were released in early April as Allstate scurried to control damage done by a Florida appeals court when it decided state regulators could prevent Allstate from writing new policies because it refused to turn over those documents.

In essence, Allstate's position to claimants was "you don't need a lawyer; trust us to get you a fair settlement quickly." More often than not, however, their offer was substantially below fair market value and claimants would settle so they did not have to deal with aggressive litigation. The reason for these tactics? Simple: profits. Allstate is far more concerned with their bottom line than it is with appropriately compensating injured claimants.

What should be underscored here is this: when anyone -- especially an insurance company -- tells you a lawyer isn't necessary and tries to curb your access to the civil justice system, run in the other direction.

For more on Allstate's practices go to www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080406/NEWS/804060659/1661