News Category: Insurance Practices
| Auto Insurance, Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents, Insurance Practices
Progressive’s underhanded treatment of accident victim’s family goes viral
A blogger named Matt Fisher recently posted about his family's treatment at the hands of Progressive Insurance: "My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court." Fisher's sister, Katie, was killed in 2010 in an auto accident when another driver ran a red light. The other driver was underinsured, but Katie carried Progressive insurance underinsured motorist coverage that should have kicked in and paid benefits to her family. Source Only it didn't because Progressive refused to accept that the other driver was at fault fo ...
Read More | One Comment| Insurance Practices, Resources for Injured People
“Rich” hospitals help drive up cost of health care
Interesting reading this week in the Raleigh News & Observer. The newspaper is running a five-part series, "Prognosis: Profits" which reveals how nonprofit hospitals are making big money, paying big salaries and saddling some of their most vulnerable patients with big bills. This is driving up health care costs and putting the burden of the sick and injured who cannot afford to pay their bills. Here's just a preview of the findings of the series: Most of them are nonprofits. But many of them, especially the big ones, are making a fortu ...
Read More | No Comments| Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents, Insurance Practices
DLG withdraws support for HB 813; compromises could be harmful to injured people
We recently asked you to write to your state senators in support of legislation that would change how automobile accident claims and other personal injury cases are handled in court. While we still believe that North Carolina's use of contributory negligence in personal injury cases is antiquated, harsh and punishes injured people, we can no longer support the version of HB 813 now being debated by state lawmakers. Quite simply, some the the provisions that have been added to the bill as it has made its way through the N.C. General Assembly ...
Read More | 2 Comments| Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents, Insurance Practices
SUPPORT BILL HB 813 – for injured people
State lawmakers are preparing to vote on legislation that will impact anyone who is hurt in a car accident or suffers a personal injury that is someone else’s fault. North Carolina is one of only four states that allow the doctrine of contributory negligence as a defense in auto accident and other personal injury cases. Contributory negligence is a harsh and outdated way of denying help to people hurt in accidents. Under current law, if you’re even 1 percent responsible for an accident, you CANNOT recover damages from the person wh ...
Read More | No Comments| Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents, Insurance Practices
Tell Your State Senators to Vote for HB 813
The N.C. General Assembly is considering important legislation that will impact anyone who is hurt in in an automobile accident or suffers from a personal injury. We need you to call, write or email your state senators as soon as possible and tell them to support HB 813, which would change the standard in personal injury cases from contributory negligence to comparative fault. We'll be writing more about this issue in the coming days, but here's a quick primer on what's at stake, courtesy of North Carolina Advocates for Justice. Al ...
Read More | No CommentsInsurance Companies Practice Deny & Delay Tactics
Good Morning America has a story that illustrates how insurance companies use deny and delay tactics to avoid paying legitimate insurance claims. In this case, a woman with Stage 4 breast cancer tried to collect disability insurance. But Cigna repeatedly denied Susan Kristoff's claim for short-term disability. Cigna said she had not proven a disability. Sick and with bills piled up, Kristoff says she considered something drastic. "If I wasn't going to be getting better, I didn't want to sink the rest of my family, so I spent two days in ...
Read More | One CommentBig pain for workers in New Jersey
Workers already suffering from injuries are getting another round of punishment heaped upon them. The federal agency that administers Medicare is causing the harm by freezing workers' compensation payments for months or even years while cases are reviewed. The problem started about five years ago when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decided they were paying for claims they believed private insurers should be picking up. Because of the reviews, New Jersey, in particular, has the highest number of backlog cases in the co ...
Read More | No CommentsInsurance Companies Systematically Mistreat Consumers for Financial Gain
Anyone who thinks the insurance companies are looking out for consumers needs to read the American Association of Justice's report Pattern of Greed, which my colleague Grace Kanoy blogged about last week. The American Association of Justice report examines tactics that insurance companies used in denying claims after Hurricane Katrina. Insurance companies has a systemic policy of denying claims. Workers' compensation attorneys see examples of this every day. And the Pattern of Greed report, as well as an investigation by CNN on car insurance ...
Read More | No CommentsAmerican Association for Justice releases report on Insurance greed
The American Association for Justice just released a report entitled Pattern of Greed: How insurance companies put profits over policyholders. Personal Injury attorneys have long known about the unethical tactics used by insurance companies to avoid paying fair claims. In the past few years, the AAJ have really assumed a stronger role in educating the consumer about these insurance practices. In this latest report, it highlights the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the second devastation experienced by the residents along th ...
Read More | No CommentsMedia Jumps to Judgment in Describing Starbucks Burn Lawsuit as Frivolous
Once again, the mainstream media is helping to perpetuate the myth of the frivolous lawsuit. This time the culprit is Good Morning America Radio on XM Sattelite Radio. Recently, the show's host reported about a lawsuit that a New Jersey man filed after suffering third-degree burns at Starbucks. Here's the gist of the Starbucks burn lawsuit, as covered by a New Jersey newspaper: A Wayne man filed suit Thursday against a local Starbucks, claiming his hand was scalded by overly hot tea from an improperly lidded cup. Antonio Couso and his wife, Lu ...
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