What Allstate Does Not Want You to Know
Allstate insurance company has told you that you do not need a lawyer for your accident case. Is that true? Do you need a lawyer? Will you get as much money without a lawyer as you will with a lawyer? Will you be treated fairly? Is Allstate commonly in bad faith? Will you get as much money for your accident case if you negotiate on your own as compared to if you hire an attorney? Not according to Allstate insurance company. In fact, their claims manual previously set forth that accident victims who hire a lawyer get 2 to 3 times more on average than if they do not hire an attorney. So Allstate makes it easy for you. They tell you, not directly, that you're better off hiring a lawyer. All you have to do is deal with them to find out. And the worse thing to do is to try to do so without the assistance of a lawyer. And, according to their statistics, you will get more on average, even after you pay the attorney’s fees from the settlement. This is whether you are located in Broward, Miami-Dade, or Palm Beach County, or anywhere else in this state of Florida. So why not hire a lawyer to do all of the work and deal with the headaches?
In recent years, Allstate Insurance Company has been the subject of numerous investigations by states and by news organizations. After an 18 month-long investigation, CNN unveiled one of Allstate’s tactics to save money. According to former insurance insiders, Allstate purposely makes offers short of what you need because they know you are going to take it. Proven effective, Allstate’s strategy relies on people’s fear of not getting any money. Another 3-month investigation on Allstate conducted by ABC News Prime Time revealed that adjusters are trained to be friendly and compassionate so that people don’t seek the representation of an attorney. By law, companies are required to adequately pay claims, however, when this is not done, they are referred to as bad faith insurance companies. Allstate ranks 1st in bad faith practices. In addition, the American Association of Justice calls Allstate the worst insurance company in America because of their efforts to make more money by not paying out claims. But you don’t have to take their word for it; take a look at 384 consumer complaints on Allstate. There’s even an entire website dedicated to show Allstate’s dirty tricks.
Allstate calls themselves the "Good Hands People". In our office, we call them the "Bad Hands People", or “Allsnake”, and for good reason.
On an “A” through F scale, we consider them to be a “D-“ company. Now if you go to school and you got a “D-“, would you be happy with that grade? And it’s not for what they pay on property damage claims. It’s for what they pay on claims for people who are injured.
Many times it is not until you get them to the courthouse steps, after filing a lawsuit, do they come up with reasonable money. They know that if you have not filed a lawsuit, and more importantly if you have not hired a lawyer, that they can take advantage of you. For example, we had a case where their best offer was $25,000 for a nurse injured in an accident, and we got a jury verdict of more than $225,000 against Allstate insurance company and an underinsured motorist carrier. Of course, that won't happen in every case, but that's almost 10 times what their best offer wants.
We had another case where they offered $125,000 at mediation and their maximum offer was $300,000 during the trial. Our jury verdict of $563,000 far exceeded their best offer. This is not an uncommon theme. ‘Lowball’ offers often occur until right before trial, or even necessitate a jury trial.
Trying to handle a personal injury case on your own is a very bad idea. The first bad idea is giving a recorded statement to the insurance company. We don't agree with that, and we normally don't allow our clients to do it. If you call us, we can explain what our rationale is and why we usually do not allow statements.
So if you have a case with Allstate, call us. We have handled hundreds of cases against them, and look forward to representing you to put some fairness into the process.
So please call us now to make your life easier
If we take your case, it will be our pleasure to represent you.