The adjuster, Alon Arad, faced Farrell\’s feisty daughter.
Farrell, Arad said, would receive a letter from State Farm denying her coverage for the loss of her home and everything in it.
The insurer had decided, he said, the loss was from flood, covered by federal flood insurance. State Farm would send an engineer later to sort out the wind and flood damage and maybe he would be able to pay something under Farrell\’s State Farm homeowner\’s policy.
\”How do you know the wind didn\’t blow (her) house down?\” Ortego asked.
\”This is the $64 question,\” Arad said. \”I mean, nobody knows.\”
The good news, he said, was they could take State Farm\’s denial letter to FEMA. FEMA helped those without insurance coverage, he said, but not much. He knew, he said, because he used to work for FEMA.
\”I\’m just telling you,\” the adjuster said. \”I\’m the messenger.\”
\”\”Yeah,\” Ortego reluctantly agreed.
\”Don\’t kill me,\” the adjuster said. \”That\’s the way it is now and it\’s going to be for everybody.
\”And I know that they are working on some kind of a guideline to see if they can help any and give any help. Understand? But the way it is now, they said this is flood. Understand?\”
The adjuster acknowledged it would be tricky for an engineer to separate the wind and water damage.
Ortego bluntly asked Arad, \”What do you think happened here?\”
\”What do I think personally, off-record? It\’s, it\’s the wind and water, you know?\”
\”Yeah,\” Ortego said.
\”Wind and flood,\” Arad continued. \”Now, what, how do they decide? I don\’t know. They might decide maybe, you know, like, uh, let\’s pay half of federal, let\’s pay half insurance. I have no idea. But I think that\’s the best solution, I mean, in my opinion.\”
Farrell and Ortego argued the wind, up to 150 miles per hour, could have blown the house up or down before the water arrived.
\”The problem is, everybody was evacuated,\” Arad said. \”Nobody was here to even witness it.\”
This would prove untrue, but so much was still unknown or uncertain in Katrina\’s chaotic aftermath.
At one point Ortego started to say something about State Farm, but Arad interrupted. \”Oh, no, no,\” he said, speaking slowly, as if he were talking to a small child. \”It\’s every company now.\”
\”It\’s everybody?\” Ortego asked in disbelief.
\”Everybody,\” he said.
He explained the insurance policy was a contract, worded by lawyers, and the contract excluded damage from water.
Farrell did not get it. Her insurance policy included a hurricane deductible for direct physical loss from wind, wind gusts, hail, rain, tornadoes or cyclones.
In speaking with them, Arad learned they did have $15,500 in flood coverage. He coached them through composition of a contents list, on the spot.
He suggested categories of household items they could list – appliances, for example – so the total would equal the meager maximum of their flood policy, which Farrell had received directly from FEMA.
The first floor of her house had flooded in previous tropical storms. The whole area was in a flood zone. In heavy rains, flood water rose and flood water fell, leaving the houses intact.
Farrell tried to tell Arad this was a hurricane, this was different.
After the adjuster\’s visit, Ortego started digging.
The sun bore down. Her husband was impatient and ready to leave. Flies bit her. A helicopter whirred overhead.
Still she dug, breathing hard while debris clanked as she wrested it from the earth.
She found a vase that had belonged to her grandmother. Her Pawpaw\’s cooking pot. A fishing pole, bike and binoculars. Her mother\’s china. She even found some cash.
\”I hit the jackpot over here,\” she called. \”Y\’all don\’t know how to dig.\”
\”You know what you don\’t understand?\” her husband asked.
\”What?\”
\”Your Momma\’s sitting there breaking down watching y\’all dig.\”
\”Well,\” Ortego said, \”this is all she has.\”
The other voices trailed off. Ortego\’s breath grew faster and harder as she labored in the heat. She had forgotten all about the tape recorder. So many things had happened since Katrina came to life over the ocean.
She called out one last time, to her younger brother, before the tape went silent.
\”J.R.,\” she asked \”what did you think of that insurance man?\”
M O R E N E W S F R O M
• FEMA
• Outdoor Recreation
• Bay St. Louis, MS
• US News
• Discuss US News
company is willing to settle claims in order to avoid the uncertainty company is willing to settle claims in order to avoid the uncertainty company is willing to settle claims in order to avoid the uncertainty
Many of State Farm\’s financial wounds were self-inflicted
While there might be some reason to be understandable about the decision of State Farm Insurance to suspend sales of any new commercial or homeowner policies in Mississippi, company officials shouldn\’t be allowed to get away with their self-professed righteous indignation
I challenge you to dig out your dusty auto
insurance policy and try to make heads or tails out of it. I have spoken to
a number of legal professionals who have worked for the insurance companies
and they can\’t even explain them. Who protects us from fraud by insurance
companies? I was originally told that the role of the Office of the
Insurance Commissioner was to serve as a consumer protection agency, but I
have found that they\’ve become nothing more that the type of political
bureaucracy that they were formed to protect us against.
President George W. Bush singe the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on July 30, 2002.
This law was aimed at prosecuting fraud in Corporations, but the problem is
lack of enforcement. Who is at your back door? A well paid insurance
lobbyist? There can be no effective control of corporations while they remain
politically active through lobbyists that distribute their cash. I can promise you this. I will not give up.
Safeguard us from betrayal! Money, the donor with rank. A protected
agency with no honorable dispute. Teddy Roosevelt was the first to coin the phrase
\”muckrakers\”. I just want to know who really is working for the people.
because today it is all about money.
The State Farm Code of Conduct has been in place for nearly 10 years and provides all employees ethical and legal guidelines they must follow. Every State Farm employee must comply with the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Our culture is firmly rooted in being a compliant organization in very heavily regulated industries. We have a reporting system that brings indiscretions to our attention, and we\’re committed to responding, when necessary, with discipline, corrective action and preventive measures. Our commitment to our customers is based on a strong ethical belief.
It\’s important we know this about each other and that our customers know this about us: At State Farm, we don\’t just do what\’s legal. We also do what\’s right
ordered to produce. Evidence the company destroyed documents has been presented in several cases.
In the Oklahoma case, after State Farm finally turned over to the court a \”claims legal research\” DVD and other records, Judge Richard G. Van Dyck told company attorneys
\”As I was watching these tapes I just want to say this for the record, the hair on the back of my neck did — did stand up because I was seeing things there that early on in this case I was told by (State Farm) defense counsel didn\’t exist and couldn\’t be produced. So I\’m not real happy with that and I want to remind all counsel that their ethical responsibilities as attorneys outweigh the wishes of their clients.\”
Gary T. Fye, an expert in the analysis of disputed insurance claims who lives in Nevada, often testifies in insurance cases. Fye, who said he has testified on behalf of policyholders and insurance companies, has provided the courts information on State Farm\’s history of destroying and withholding records.
In 1998, Fye wrote in a Florida case
\”I have been witnessing document destruction, concealment, and obstruction of discovery by State Farm for many years in connection with my review of internal claim practices documents of the insurer. I have accumulated certain Exhibits which show the company\’s goals and objectives for document handling by its employees. The documents show close to 28 years of intentional destruction, concealment and distortion of claim practices records.\”
In some cases, company executives did not keep records.
tate Farm – in State Farm Cas. Co. v. Taylor, 54 Cal.App.4th 625 (1997) the California Court of Appeal upheld the criminal fraud exception to attorney-client communications between State Farm\’s claim handlers and State Farm\’s attorneys. The case involves allegations that State Farm forged signatures on applications for earthquake insurance. The court noted that \”the declaration of Samantha Boyd established that in 1990 State Farm adopted a policy of destroying potentially relevant documents to avoid producing them in bad faith actions.\” Id. at 647. The court also reviewed the testimony of Amy Zuniga, a claims specialist, who was advised by a senior executive \”that State Farm witnesses should not admit that forgeries happen, unless and until they are compelled to do so by a court order.\” Id., at 648.
A recently filed case alleges that State Farm engaged in a \”widespread practice of forging and faking insureds\’ signatures on State Farm insurance documents.\” Cohen v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., Superior Court, Los Angeles County
HISTORY!!! By SF
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National News
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State Farm the Focus of News Show Investigation
November 28, 2000
Syndicated television news magazine \”Inside Edition\” reported Monday that State Farm is buying wrecks, fixing them and putting them back on the road with clean rather than salvage titles. According
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The adjuster, Alon Arad, faced Farrell\’s feisty daughter.
Farrell, Arad said, would receive a letter from State Farm denying her coverage for the loss of her home and everything in it.
The insurer had decided, he said, the loss was from flood, covered by federal flood insurance. State Farm would send an engineer later to sort out the wind and flood damage and maybe he would be able to pay something under Farrell\’s State Farm homeowner\’s policy.
\”How do you know the wind didn\’t blow (her) house down?\” Ortego asked.
\”This is the $64 question,\” Arad said. \”I mean, nobody knows.\”
The good news, he said, was they could take State Farm\’s denial letter to FEMA. FEMA helped those without insurance coverage, he said, but not much. He knew, he said, because he used to work for FEMA.
\”I\’m just telling you,\” the adjuster said. \”I\’m the messenger.\”
\”\”Yeah,\” Ortego reluctantly agreed.
\”Don\’t kill me,\” the adjuster said. \”That\’s the way it is now and it\’s going to be for everybody.
\”And I know that they are working on some kind of a guideline to see if they can help any and give any help. Understand? But the way it is now, they said this is flood. Understand?\”
The adjuster acknowledged it would be tricky for an engineer to separate the wind and water damage.
Ortego bluntly asked Arad, \”What do you think happened here?\”
\”What do I think personally, off-record? It\’s, it\’s the wind and water, you know?\”
\”Yeah,\” Ortego said.
\”Wind and flood,\” Arad continued. \”Now, what, how do they decide? I don\’t know. They might decide maybe, you know, like, uh, let\’s pay half of federal, let\’s pay half insurance. I have no idea. But I think that\’s the best solution, I mean, in my opinion.\”
Farrell and Ortego argued the wind, up to 150 miles per hour, could have blown the house up or down before the water arrived.
\”The problem is, everybody was evacuated,\” Arad said. \”Nobody was here to even witness it.\”
This would prove untrue, but so much was still unknown or uncertain in Katrina\’s chaotic aftermath.
At one point Ortego started to say something about State Farm, but Arad interrupted. \”Oh, no, no,\” he said, speaking slowly, as if he were talking to a small child. \”It\’s every company now.\”
\”It\’s everybody?\” Ortego asked in disbelief.
\”Everybody,\” he said.
He explained the insurance policy was a contract, worded by lawyers, and the contract excluded damage from water.
Farrell did not get it. Her insurance policy included a hurricane deductible for direct physical loss from wind, wind gusts, hail, rain, tornadoes or cyclones.
In speaking with them, Arad learned they did have $15,500 in flood coverage. He coached them through composition of a contents list, on the spot.
He suggested categories of household items they could list – appliances, for example – so the total would equal the meager maximum of their flood policy, which Farrell had received directly from FEMA.
The first floor of her house had flooded in previous tropical storms. The whole area was in a flood zone. In heavy rains, flood water rose and flood water fell, leaving the houses intact.
Farrell tried to tell Arad this was a hurricane, this was different.
After the adjuster\’s visit, Ortego started digging.
The sun bore down. Her husband was impatient and ready to leave. Flies bit her. A helicopter whirred overhead.
Still she dug, breathing hard while debris clanked as she wrested it from the earth.
She found a vase that had belonged to her grandmother. Her Pawpaw\’s cooking pot. A fishing pole, bike and binoculars. Her mother\’s china. She even found some cash.
\”I hit the jackpot over here,\” she called. \”Y\’all don\’t know how to dig.\”
\”You know what you don\’t understand?\” her husband asked.
\”What?\”
\”Your Momma\’s sitting there breaking down watching y\’all dig.\”
\”Well,\” Ortego said, \”this is all she has.\”
The other voices trailed off. Ortego\’s breath grew faster and harder as she labored in the heat. She had forgotten all about the tape recorder. So many things had happened since Katrina came to life over the ocean.
She called out one last time, to her younger brother, before the tape went silent.
\”J.R.,\” she asked \”what did you think of that insurance man?\”
M O R E N E W S F R O M
• FEMA
• Outdoor Recreation
• Bay St. Louis, MS
• US News
• Discuss US News
company is willing to settle claims in order to avoid the uncertainty company is willing to settle claims in order to avoid the uncertainty company is willing to settle claims in order to avoid the uncertainty
Many of State Farm\’s financial wounds were self-inflicted
While there might be some reason to be understandable about the decision of State Farm Insurance to suspend sales of any new commercial or homeowner policies in Mississippi, company officials shouldn\’t be allowed to get away with their self-professed righteous indignation
Why dont yall just fight over American Idol or something. This is gettin old.
Note I left the apostrophes off because this block doesn\’t pring them. Don\’t fight over it.
Well, I\’ll be doggoned. It did print them.
I challenge you to dig out your dusty auto
insurance policy and try to make heads or tails out of it. I have spoken to
a number of legal professionals who have worked for the insurance companies
and they can\’t even explain them. Who protects us from fraud by insurance
companies? I was originally told that the role of the Office of the
Insurance Commissioner was to serve as a consumer protection agency, but I
have found that they\’ve become nothing more that the type of political
bureaucracy that they were formed to protect us against.
President George W. Bush singe the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on July 30, 2002.
This law was aimed at prosecuting fraud in Corporations, but the problem is
lack of enforcement. Who is at your back door? A well paid insurance
lobbyist? There can be no effective control of corporations while they remain
politically active through lobbyists that distribute their cash. I can promise you this. I will not give up.
Safeguard us from betrayal! Money, the donor with rank. A protected
agency with no honorable dispute. Teddy Roosevelt was the first to coin the phrase
\”muckrakers\”. I just want to know who really is working for the people.
because today it is all about money.
The State Farm Code of Conduct has been in place for nearly 10 years and provides all employees ethical and legal guidelines they must follow. Every State Farm employee must comply with the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Our culture is firmly rooted in being a compliant organization in very heavily regulated industries. We have a reporting system that brings indiscretions to our attention, and we\’re committed to responding, when necessary, with discipline, corrective action and preventive measures. Our commitment to our customers is based on a strong ethical belief.
It\’s important we know this about each other and that our customers know this about us: At State Farm, we don\’t just do what\’s legal. We also do what\’s right
ordered to produce. Evidence the company destroyed documents has been presented in several cases.
In the Oklahoma case, after State Farm finally turned over to the court a \”claims legal research\” DVD and other records, Judge Richard G. Van Dyck told company attorneys
\”As I was watching these tapes I just want to say this for the record, the hair on the back of my neck did — did stand up because I was seeing things there that early on in this case I was told by (State Farm) defense counsel didn\’t exist and couldn\’t be produced. So I\’m not real happy with that and I want to remind all counsel that their ethical responsibilities as attorneys outweigh the wishes of their clients.\”
Gary T. Fye, an expert in the analysis of disputed insurance claims who lives in Nevada, often testifies in insurance cases. Fye, who said he has testified on behalf of policyholders and insurance companies, has provided the courts information on State Farm\’s history of destroying and withholding records.
In 1998, Fye wrote in a Florida case
\”I have been witnessing document destruction, concealment, and obstruction of discovery by State Farm for many years in connection with my review of internal claim practices documents of the insurer. I have accumulated certain Exhibits which show the company\’s goals and objectives for document handling by its employees. The documents show close to 28 years of intentional destruction, concealment and distortion of claim practices records.\”
In some cases, company executives did not keep records.
tate Farm – in State Farm Cas. Co. v. Taylor, 54 Cal.App.4th 625 (1997) the California Court of Appeal upheld the criminal fraud exception to attorney-client communications between State Farm\’s claim handlers and State Farm\’s attorneys. The case involves allegations that State Farm forged signatures on applications for earthquake insurance. The court noted that \”the declaration of Samantha Boyd established that in 1990 State Farm adopted a policy of destroying potentially relevant documents to avoid producing them in bad faith actions.\” Id. at 647. The court also reviewed the testimony of Amy Zuniga, a claims specialist, who was advised by a senior executive \”that State Farm witnesses should not admit that forgeries happen, unless and until they are compelled to do so by a court order.\” Id., at 648.
A recently filed case alleges that State Farm engaged in a \”widespread practice of forging and faking insureds\’ signatures on State Farm insurance documents.\” Cohen v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., Superior Court, Los Angeles County
HISTORY!!! By SF
Subscriber Services
Current Issue
Free Newsletters
News Magazines Directories Classifieds Yellow Pages Media Advertise
Go to Section: Choose a Section —————————— News Most Popular National International East Midwest Southeast Texas/South Central West —————————— Magazines East Midwest Southeast Texas/South Central West Subscribe —————————— New Markets Audio/Video How to Write —————————— Resources Market Directories Forums Events Calendar —————————— Contact Us Send Feedback Subscriber Services Submit News How to Advertise Site Search: Home > News > National News > Nov 2000
National News
Send Feedback | E-mail this Article | Print this Article
State Farm the Focus of News Show Investigation
November 28, 2000
Syndicated television news magazine \”Inside Edition\” reported Monday that State Farm is buying wrecks, fixing them and putting them back on the road with clean rather than salvage titles. According