A front page article in the Dallas Morning News today revealed what I’ve known for years: Fred Loya, Old American County Mutual, and a host of other insurers mistreat claimants. A portion of the Dallas Morning News article is posted below.
I have represented dozens of clients with cases against these two companies and the others on the list. They are always difficult to work with. They do everything they can to avoid paying the money they know they should. These companies make their money by selling low-cost insurance to drivers who either can’t afford, or more likely due to previous wrecks have been rejected by other, more respectable companies. To compensate for their low premiums and high crash rates, these companies save money by paying grossly inadequate amounts on their claims. Furthering the problems, they also hire many fewer adjusters than other companies so claims are handled much slower than they should be. We have to sue on almost every one of these cases to get the compensation my clients are legally entitled to.
If you have the misfortune of being hit by a driver insured by one of these companies, you can expect any or all of the following
1) Wrongful denial of claims 2) Property damage offers less than the cost of the repairs (see below)
3) Denial of payment for medical treatment 4) Difficulty reaching claim handlers, and rude service when you do.
I don’t let my clients get treated like this, and I don’t let insurance companies get away with making bad offers. As I said, if they won’t negotiate fairly, I sue and make them pay.
For example, I had a client who was hurt when a Fred Loya insured ran a red light and crashed into her. She injured her neck and treated with a doctor. The adjuster initially offered only $2,000.00. After filing suit and doing more research on the defendant, I learned that he was a convicted felon who had been in three previous wrecks. I fought and made them pay $14,000.00, seven times Loya’s offer. After payment of fees and medical costs, She received $8,763.47 in her pocket. She was very pleased. Click here to read the client satisfaction survey she filled out.
If you’ve been in a wreck, you have enough to worry about. You don’t need to spend all your time fighting with an insurance company that doesn’t respect you and won’t pay you anywhere near what you deserve. I have been fighting with insurance companies for 30 years. Let me do the fight for you. If you’ve been injured in a wreck, call me today at 817-885-8000.
(From The Dallas Morning News)
Larry Randall was one of thousands of Texas drivers in accidents last year that weren’t their fault. But unlike many, the Richardson engineer’s problems were just beginning after the collision.
The driver who sideswiped his 2006 Chrysler Sebring and forced him off the road in May 2009 had a policy with an insurer that Randall later discovered was among the worst in handling claims.
That company, Loya Insurance, initially balked at assuming responsibility for its policyholder — who tried to flee the scene — and then said it would pay just $270 for damages and expenses that Randall estimated were nearly $1,700.
“They tried to ignore me from day one, and then they finally sent me a check covering a fraction of my claim. When’s the last time you heard of major damage to the side of a car being fixed for $300?” Randall said, noting he has not cashed the company’s check.
Loya is one of two large auto insurers that had a complaint record well above the state average in 2009, according to a new listing of “justified” complaints handled by the state Insurance Department.
Those complaints from Texas drivers included such practices as delays in processing claims, unsatisfactory offers or settlements, denial of claims and liability disputes.
An analysis of the Insurance Department figures by The Dallas Morning News showed that 10 of the 25 largest auto insurers in the state — those with more than 100,000 policies — had worse-than-average customer service records.
The two companies at the top of the list — Loya and Old American County Mutual — are now being investigated by the Insurance Department for violations of state regulations, an agency spokesman said.
Loya, which collected more than $283 million in premiums last year, performed nearly four times worse than a typical Texas insurer, according to the state-calculated “complaint index.”