So what if State Farm is the biggest insurance company in this country. What does that mean to me? Well, since they are the biggest insurance company in America, they seem to control how the industry evaluates claims. State Farm is worth $134 billion dollars, that’s right billion.
I believe Progressive Insurance Company may be in second place. Having that kind of money and that kind of greed that only massive corporations can have, definitely they are going to have a claim’s division that is tough as nails. Snake Farm as many attorneys like to say, is wanting their claim’s department to save as much money as possible. Their mantra is Deny, Delay and Defend for most soft-tissue injury cases, anyway. I do not know if they have the same type of battle going on with other injury cases like surgery or broken bones. I would hope that State Farm is not going to take it that far and start the three D’s on more serious injury cases. I think they are doing this only on “whiplash”cases.
DENY
First, State Farm will find any reason they can make up to deny the claim. Like, you were not covered under the policy or you had pre-existing conditions that they believe were still there and not aggravated by the car crash. If they can deny claims, they know that most people will stop there and State Farm would have won. However, the other half of the people do not want a billion dollar company to go unscathed. They wanted to be compensated for their injuries.
And I am not talking about false claims. Any false claim should be immediately denied. If one kid decides to drive on the highway and then slam on his brakes, then he is faking and cheating and that person should actually go to Jail. I am only talking about legitimate injury claims where a client is hurt badly, maybe no x-rays show broken bones, but a soft tissue injury is more permanent and can bother you for the rest of your life, in some cases.
DELAY
Snake Farm is a master at delay. First of all, they take a long time to recognize you as the claimant’s lawyer and they may just mail a letter out a few weeks after representation. When you go to propose a reasonable pre-suit settlement and they do not answer you or let your time demand expire before they contact you. It is total disrespect for people and suffering someone goes through in a car crash. Currently, I have a case against State Farm. First, they offered a low settlement offer which basically did not hardly cover my client’s medical bills. This is an injustice. When I counter offered, then they just ignored me. They would actually avoid my phone calls and not answer my repeated emails.
Of course, State Farm or Snake Farm has this whole process worked out like a charm. It is hard for most attorneys to fight a billion dollar company. The only thing that State Farm understands are lawsuits. The attorneys that are willing to file a lawsuit get more respect and they have different lawyers pegged in different holes, those who will file a lawsuit and those attorneys that will not. They keep a list of attorneys and law firms across the country that will be willing to fight them.
I am on that list because they know I will fight tooth and nail even though I am just the “little guy” in this picture. As a little guy myself, I want to give normal and injured people their chance in court, there chance to prove this is not fake or nonsense, and their chance to tell their story to a group of their peers.
If a lawyer takes a case where the at fault driver carries Snake Farm, then a lawyer is going to think twice before taking the case. For sure, the lawyer will think it is not going to be worth it to take a whiplash case to Trial against a billionaire company. Then, most lawyers who handle car accident cases will stop taking cases against State Farm drivers. Then they have accomplished their goal of cutting down on claims and making more billions and billions of dollars.
DEFEND
The last part of Snake Farm’s crusade against legitimate claims is to defend. Unfortunately, State Farm has endless amounts of money to handle the millions of claims it gets each year. They put that money into claim’s teams whom are their first line of defense. Behind that defense, sits the supervisors up in their glory cubicles. Supervisors believe they are duty bound by God to delay, deny and defend. Sometimes the supervisors will give their lowly employees a little more authority which means money to get a claim settled. But, State Farm is smart. They will not give out their Supervisors phone number as their phones would be non stop ringing with plaintiff car wreck attorneys. They have it figured out.
In my current case, they are waging a campaign of delay and ignore. They will not answer my emails or calls or faxes, so they want lawyers to feel like they do not exist. That we are on the evil side when it is them, a billionaire company that is evilly denying legitimate injury claims from all over the country.
HOW DO PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEYS FIGHT BACK?
FIRST, you have to tell your client that this is the largest and most difficult insurance company in the USA and it ain’t going to be easy. You are end for the long haul, no fast and easy settlement will come from Snake Farm.
Car accident attorneys need to start building a case for bad faith against State Farm, even fraud. One can do this by setting forth all the action or non-action that the adjuster took on this particular claim. Send them emails documenting all the negligence acts committed by this low level adjuster. Make a record in case a bad faith case goes to Trial and then you will have a clean factual record of all the acts committed or not committed by Snake Farm.
SECOND, you have to be ready to file an immediate Complaint with the Colorado commissioner in the Insurance Dept. of Colorado. These complaints by injured parties can later be tallied up and shown at Trial. I also will frequently ask them questions in an email which they never answer, but just the fact that they did not answer goes one step more to building a bad faith case. Remember, Snake Farm only understands one thing, litigation. If you file a lawsuit and get them into court, they understand that and fear that. They do not want their big bad ass insurance company’s secrets revealed.
FINALLY, you have to be willing to fight them. If you are not willing to fight them, then they have won and you are one less attorney they have to worry about in the future. Their aim is to make soft tissue injury or whiplash cases non-existent. And they are slowly chipping away at the piles of millions of claims on their desks.
If you have a good case and it is against Snake Farm, I am not afraid of them and I will battle them to get the justice you deserve and compensation for your injuries which they believe are a figment of your imagination. I am always available to talk free by phone or in person. I never charge for my phone time or meeting time like some other attorneys.