Ryan Zavodnick | October 11, 2022 | Personal Injury
Having insurance is a necessary expense in our modern world. We insure our health care, our vehicles, our homes and our personal belongings. Great advances have been made in medical, safety, and security technology, but accidents still happen.
If you’re in a car accident, one of your first phone calls will be to your insurance company. Many Pennsylvanians have or must deal with Allstate after their crash. Unfortunately, Allstate is one of the worst insurance companies for consumers. Let’s take a look at why.
The Insurance Business is All Business
Sadly, just because insurance companies should pay for your losses, it doesn’t mean that they will. Insurance companies’ desire for profits often prevails over their concern for their insureds’ well-being. They may employ several different strategies to avoid paying the full value of claims or attempt to not pay anything at all.
Allstate is known to be one of the worst insurance companies for Pennsylvania consumers. If you need help choosing a quality insurance company, you can look at the Pennsylvania Insurance Department website to see how the companies stack up against each other in terms of consumer complaints.
If you’ve been in a car accident, truck accident, or any other accident that caused a personal injury, it’s smart to contact an experienced attorney for advice on how to proceed. You’ll want an attorney on your side when dealing with insurance companies.
Typical Insurance Company Tactics
In a lot of insurance companies, it is common practice to give the insured the runaround. They take advantage of people who are inexperienced in insurance matters at a time when they are especially vulnerable.
There are several tactics that insurance companies like Allstate use to help them pay out as little as possible.
- Offer an unreasonably low offer—Allstate, like other insurance companies will knowingly offer you less than they know your case is worth, hoping you will bite. Once the offer is formally accepted, they are off the hook for any future payments to you.
- Flat out deceit—Allstate apparently hired a consulting firm to help them maximize profits. The firm told them they should aim to pay out as little as possible even for covered and legitimate claims. Allstate claims adjusters have even been advised to lie to claimants in order to get them to accept low offers. It has also been alleged that adjusters have been given gifts or bonuses for deceiving customers and getting good results for the company.
Allstate Legal Cases in Pennsylvania
A class-action lawsuit against Allstate was approved by the state’s supreme court. The case centers on Allstate’s policy that requires its claimants to get examined by Allstate-approved doctors before they can get benefits.
The first case that brought this practice to attention was a 2015 car accident in which a woman was injured. Allstate wouldn’t pay her benefits until she saw a doctor that they had signed off on. The woman argued that this practice violated state law, which said that insurance companies couldn’t refuse to pay a benefit unless they had a court order based on good cause. Allstate did not have a court order.
In another case, the attorney general of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against Allstate, claiming that it tried to keep Pennsylvanians from hiring attorneys to help them settle their claims against those insured by Allstate.
Call an Experienced Accident Attorney for Help with Insurance Claims
If you have been in an accident, you will most likely have to deal with an insurance company to get compensated for any injuries or property damage that occurred. It’s smart to contact an attorney for advice on how to navigate the insurance process and get the compensation to which you are entitled.
Contact Our Personal Injury Law Firm in Philadelphia Today To Get Help With Your Case
To learn more and get the help you deserve, call Zavodnick & Lasky Personal Injury Lawyers at (215) 875-7030 or contact us online.
You can also visit our law firm at 123 S Broad St #1220, Philadelphia, PA 19109.