Phone: 206-727-4000
Insurance companies have discovered that they can make more money by simply paying out less. Insurance companies will often unreasonably deny or delay payment of benefits, fail to provide coverage or fail to settle a case within the limits of the insurance policy. If this has happened to you, you have likely suffered “insurance bad faith,” and you may need to hire an insurance disputes lawyer that can get you the benefits to which you are entitled.
Washington State Insurance Commissioner
Has an insurance company unfairly denied your personal injury claim? Is the insurance company just refusing to pay? It isn't because they don't have the money. Insurance companies are putting profits over people.
The insurance industry is making huge profits. The U.S. insurance industry takes in over $1 trillion in premiums annually.3 It has $3.8 trillion in assets, more than the Gross Domestic Products of all but two countries in the world (United States and Japan).
Over the last 10 years, the property/casualty insurance industry has enjoyed average profits of over $30 billion a year. The life and health side of the insurance industry has averaged another $30 billion.
The CEOs of the top 10 property/casualty insurance companies earned an average $8.9 million in 2007.
If you or a family member has struggled with an insurance claim, Seattle Attorney Chris Davis and the Davis Law Group, P.S. can help you. Having substantial experience with insurance disputes and bad faith claims and trying may of these cases in court, the Davis Law Group has the skill and expertise necessary to help you.
Contact us now for a FREE legal consultation about your insurance dispute or bad faith claim. There is no obligation to hire a lawyer. There is no fee until our attorneys successfully recover fair compensation for you.
To identify the worst insurance companies for consumers, researchers at the American Association for Justice (AAJ) undertook a comprehensive investigation. The final list includes companies across a range of different insurance fields, including homeowners and auto insurers,health insurers, life insurers, and disability insurers.
1. Allstate
2. Unum
3. AIG
4. State Farm
5. Conseco
6. WellPoint
7. Farmers
8. UnitedHealth
9. Torchmark
10. Liberty Mutual
Allstate’s confrontational attitude towards its own policyholders is legendary. Allstate focuses on reducing the amount of money it pays in claims, whether or not they were valid. When it adopted these recommendations, Allstate made a deliberate decision to start putting profits over policyholders.
The company essentially uses a combination of lowball offers and hardball litigation. It routinely offers claimants less than their case is worth. Those that accept the low-balled settlements are treated with “good hands” but may be left with less money than they need to cover medical bills and lost wages. If the claimant rejects the lowball offer and files a lawsuit Allstate will spend more than the claim is worth to fight it it court...to discourage others from filing suit.
Former Allstate adjusters say they were rewarded for keeping claims payments low, even if they had to deceive their customers.
Unum has a history of denying and delaying claims. Former employees have gone on record saying Unum ordered them to deny claims in order to meet cost-savings goals. In 2005, Unum agreed to a settlement with insurance commissioners from 48 states over their claims-handling practices. Under the agreement, the company agreed to reopen more than 200,000 cases and pay $15 million.
According to a report by the California Department of Insurance, Unum systematically violated state insurance regulations and fraudulently denied or low-balled claims using phony medical reports, policy misrepresentations, and biased investigations.
Like Allstate, State Farm used consulting giant McKinsey & Co. The McKinsey concept involves cutting spending on claims payments to boost profits. Agents steeped in the McKinsey way speak of the “three D’s”— deny the claim, delay the payment, and then do anything to defend against a lawsuit.
While State Farm will do anything to fight a claim once it has been taken to court, the company has never been shy about using the courts to its own advantage, even when it has to first stack the deck.
The world’s biggest insurer, AIG has a long history of claims-handling abuses for both individuals and business clients. AIG has long had a reputation for claims-handling abuses.
Former AIG claims supervisors have alleged in litigation that the company used all manner of tricks to deny or delay claims, including locking checks in a safe until claimants complained, delaying payment of attorney fees until they were a year old, disposing of important correspondence, and routinely fighting claimants for years in court over small mundane claims.
AIG is not alone in using strategies such as deny-delay-defend to enhance its bottom line at their customers’ expense. What sets AIG apart, however, is the way it has so callously sought to take advantage of its policyholders’ misfortunes.
Call 206-727-4000 now for a FREE legal consultation regarding your insurance coverage dispute case. We have meeting space in Seattle, Bellevue, Mercer Island and Renton to serve accident victims all over Washington State.
Yes, we can arrange to have someone come to you if you are unable to visit one of our offices.
We can help whether you live in Auburn, Bellevue, Bellingham, Bremerton, Cascade, Edmonds, Everett, Federal Way, Kennewick, Kent, Kirkland, Lakewood, Longview, Olympia, Redmond, Renton, Richland, Seattle, Shoreline, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, Yakima or the greater Seattle area. Having substantial experience with insurance claims and often trying these kinds of cases in court, the Davis Law Group has the skill and expertise necessary to help you.
Davis Law Group and attorney Chris Davis has been featured in news reports on these local and national news sources:
Vehicle Accidents
Wrongful Death
Child Injuries
Medical Malpractice
Catastrophic Injuries
Dog Bites
