I wish I could say I am shocked by the insurance company\’s actions, but sadly, we went through the same thing with \”Mutual of O…\” flood insurance after Hurricane Isabel in Maryland 3 years ago.
We still have not received what we paid for and are still struggling with the financial and emotional effects.
You depend on the insurance companies to help you in this time of desperation, and all they do is fight you and do everything they can to avoid paying on policies that you purchase for disasters like floods.
Insurance companies can easily rebound after this, since it\’s only money.
Mutual of O… insurance has ruined our lives.
You keep hoping someone will do the right thing. These women deserve a medal for having a conscience. Do you insurance companies remember what that is?
Depends on the company – State Farm & Allstate are some of the worst. I applaud these 2 woman as their lives will likely become hell. If these allegations are true, I hope they nail them to the wall. Be nice if one of these atty generals looks into political contributions from ins companies as well
There are grossly inept people in every profession. That includes engineers. I have reviewed many engineers’ reports and in some it is clear the engineer does not have a clue. Some engineers purposefully slant the facts due to biases. In a catastrophe, a company is sometimes forced to hire “professionals” with an unknown expertise. If common engineering practice supports a particular conclusion those nonconcurring may be flawed. I do not know what the facts are. I just know there should be no rush to judge.
Something that always exasperates me is consumers\’ desire to get something for which they did not pay. If you buy a Volkswagen, that is what should be delivered, not a Mercedes. Yet, people don\’t buy the proper coverage and then expect to get it anyway. Insurance companies are like any other businesses. They have to deliver the product you bought or they go out of business.
I have worked for State Farm. I can tell you only my experience with them. It has always been one of the highest professionalism, a bent towards paying claims if anything could be found in the contract to enable payment and to skewer any gray area to the insured\’s advantage. I have never been told not to pay something that is covered. On the contrary, I have been told to pay claims I thought to be very questionable as far as coverage. I think most people believe an insurance company can just pay anything regardless of the contract. That is not the case, and, no one would expect any other business to do that. That is how businesses fail. If uninformed readers take nothing else away from this, please realize insurance is not a social program. It is a business that MUST make a profit. If it did not, you would have no insurance to purchase. Its products are priced (rated) for what they are and that is what you should expect on delivery.
Those who make blanket statements about an insurance company need to realize that it is the people who work for them who determine whether they pay or not. Some managers are concerned about their performance ratings and are tempted to stretch credibility to make a good impression on management. After all, they want to stay employed too.
Congratluations to these women who did the right thing. State Farm lies and cheats and will even commit perjury to get what it wants. I have the documentation to prove my perjury charge.
It will be interesting to see what happens to these two sisters. They first off will never hold an insurance job again. Second, they signed a confidentiality agreement, and the violated it by providing the attorney the documents.
If SFarm gets their top notch lawyers on this, they might get it thrown out on that basis. It\’s all about who has the deepest pockets…
About the confidentiality agreement broken and records being shared – I think a lot of it will have to do with exactly what was shared. What did they turn over to the attorney\’s. Did they turn over the orginal estimates and then a copy of what State Farm gave the insureds? Did they turn over a copy of the altered documents? Confidentiality may have been broken – but when one party is committing fraud – then that is a good reason to break that confidentiality.
Granted they may never be hired by an insurance company again. But chances are they will be hired by plenty of attorneys looking for \”expert\” witnesses.
It might be interesting to see what the financial reward was for these \”whistleblowers\”. Were the engineering reports altered or were they second opinions ? Were the engineering reports made by local engineers that have to live with their neighbors fearing the consequences of a report unfavorable to the insureds ? Me thinks there could be more to this than the eye can see, and then again, maybe not.
I\’m not sure I would rush to applaud these two. First, as pointed out, they violated a confidentiality agreement. Second, they turned over personal nonpublic financial information, a potential violation of state and federal privacy laws. Third, none of these allegations have withstood the rigor of cross-examination or courtroom challenge, nor has the other side been presented. Did anyone else note that their mother is a friend of Scruggs? In view of the fact that most claims have been settled and billions of dollars paid, and that the Scruggs lawsuits have failed on their most salient aspect (e.g., trying to invalidate the flood exclusion), I\’m not sure this is an obvious case of insurer wrongdoing.sejuzz
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I wish I could say I am shocked by the insurance company\’s actions, but sadly, we went through the same thing with \”Mutual of O…\” flood insurance after Hurricane Isabel in Maryland 3 years ago.
We still have not received what we paid for and are still struggling with the financial and emotional effects.
You depend on the insurance companies to help you in this time of desperation, and all they do is fight you and do everything they can to avoid paying on policies that you purchase for disasters like floods.
Insurance companies can easily rebound after this, since it\’s only money.
Mutual of O… insurance has ruined our lives.
You keep hoping someone will do the right thing. These women deserve a medal for having a conscience. Do you insurance companies remember what that is?
Depends on the company – State Farm & Allstate are some of the worst. I applaud these 2 woman as their lives will likely become hell. If these allegations are true, I hope they nail them to the wall. Be nice if one of these atty generals looks into political contributions from ins companies as well
There are grossly inept people in every profession. That includes engineers. I have reviewed many engineers’ reports and in some it is clear the engineer does not have a clue. Some engineers purposefully slant the facts due to biases. In a catastrophe, a company is sometimes forced to hire “professionals” with an unknown expertise. If common engineering practice supports a particular conclusion those nonconcurring may be flawed. I do not know what the facts are. I just know there should be no rush to judge.
Something that always exasperates me is consumers\’ desire to get something for which they did not pay. If you buy a Volkswagen, that is what should be delivered, not a Mercedes. Yet, people don\’t buy the proper coverage and then expect to get it anyway. Insurance companies are like any other businesses. They have to deliver the product you bought or they go out of business.
I have worked for State Farm. I can tell you only my experience with them. It has always been one of the highest professionalism, a bent towards paying claims if anything could be found in the contract to enable payment and to skewer any gray area to the insured\’s advantage. I have never been told not to pay something that is covered. On the contrary, I have been told to pay claims I thought to be very questionable as far as coverage. I think most people believe an insurance company can just pay anything regardless of the contract. That is not the case, and, no one would expect any other business to do that. That is how businesses fail. If uninformed readers take nothing else away from this, please realize insurance is not a social program. It is a business that MUST make a profit. If it did not, you would have no insurance to purchase. Its products are priced (rated) for what they are and that is what you should expect on delivery.
Those who make blanket statements about an insurance company need to realize that it is the people who work for them who determine whether they pay or not. Some managers are concerned about their performance ratings and are tempted to stretch credibility to make a good impression on management. After all, they want to stay employed too.
Congratluations to these women who did the right thing. State Farm lies and cheats and will even commit perjury to get what it wants. I have the documentation to prove my perjury charge.
It will be interesting to see what happens to these two sisters. They first off will never hold an insurance job again. Second, they signed a confidentiality agreement, and the violated it by providing the attorney the documents.
If SFarm gets their top notch lawyers on this, they might get it thrown out on that basis. It\’s all about who has the deepest pockets…
About the confidentiality agreement broken and records being shared – I think a lot of it will have to do with exactly what was shared. What did they turn over to the attorney\’s. Did they turn over the orginal estimates and then a copy of what State Farm gave the insureds? Did they turn over a copy of the altered documents? Confidentiality may have been broken – but when one party is committing fraud – then that is a good reason to break that confidentiality.
Granted they may never be hired by an insurance company again. But chances are they will be hired by plenty of attorneys looking for \”expert\” witnesses.
It might be interesting to see what the financial reward was for these \”whistleblowers\”. Were the engineering reports altered or were they second opinions ? Were the engineering reports made by local engineers that have to live with their neighbors fearing the consequences of a report unfavorable to the insureds ? Me thinks there could be more to this than the eye can see, and then again, maybe not.
I\’m not sure I would rush to applaud these two. First, as pointed out, they violated a confidentiality agreement. Second, they turned over personal nonpublic financial information, a potential violation of state and federal privacy laws. Third, none of these allegations have withstood the rigor of cross-examination or courtroom challenge, nor has the other side been presented. Did anyone else note that their mother is a friend of Scruggs? In view of the fact that most claims have been settled and billions of dollars paid, and that the Scruggs lawsuits have failed on their most salient aspect (e.g., trying to invalidate the flood exclusion), I\’m not sure this is an obvious case of insurer wrongdoing.sejuzz
These sisters should be prosecuted. I hope \”the book\” is thrown at these two women.