Lott Lawyer: State Farm Destroying Papers!!

[AGENDA21]

BILOXI, Miss. - A lawyer for U.S. Sen. Trent Lott said Monday that State Farm Insurance Co. is destroying documents that could show the insurer has fraudulently denied thousands of claims by Lott and other policyholders whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Zach Scruggs, one of Lott's attorneys, says his client has a "good faith belief" that several State Farm employees in Biloxi are destroying engineering reports that gave conflicting conclusions about whether wind or water was responsible for storm damage.

Like thousands of Gulf Coast homeowners, Lott's claim was denied because State Farm concluded that Katrina's flood water demolished his beach-front Pascagoula home. State Farm says its policies do not cover damage from rising water, including wind-driven water.

But lawyers for the Mississippi Republican claim Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm has routinely pressured its engineers to alter "favorable" reports that initially blamed damage on hurricane's wind, which the company's policies cover.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060410/ap_on_go_co/katrina_insurance

[xultar]

1. I wonder if he would care if his claim was taken care of to his liking.

[Career Prole]

3. Exactly what I was wondering! n/t

[rocktivity]

2. Randi Rhodes says that peoples' wind damage claims are being denied

because their houses were damaged by flooding--and that their flood damage claims are being denied because their floods were caused by the hurricane!

:crazy:
rocknation

[PA Democrat]

4. So THAT'S how the insurance industry posted record profits in 2005

despite the most devastating natural disaster to hit the US. They just don't pay the claims. I'm shocked I tell you! The insurance industry CEOs also had record incomes. See, crime does pay!

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-insure5apr05,0,3061059.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[greenbriar]

5. he helped put them in the power hold they have

he is partly to blame


I hope his "new house" is an outhouse full of the shit he and the repukes have slung at us these last 6 years

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. Now he knows how everyone else who lost their homes feels.

Sorry, but I have a hard time mustering ANY SYMPATHY for Mr. "I love Strom Thurmond" Lott. Doesn't he own another home somewhere? What's he whining about? He has a place to live. Most of those who lost their homes lost all they had. HIS party has chosen to ignore those people and let them suffer and fend for themselves.
Too bad, Trent. Suck it up. Deal with it.


on edit...THIS IS HIS SUMMER HOME! Too bad Trent. I weep no tears for you and your policies that ruined the wetlands. See what happens when you don't listen to environmentalists?

[Maine-ah]

7. ooohhh, that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

they hold my house and car policies. I think I'll start shopping around.

[Sinti]

8. Insurance is the ultimate in vaporware

It always seems as soon as you need it, they don't cover that.

[rodeodance]

9. i am hoping his case will rise the profile of insurance co. practices!

[LouisianaLiberal]

10. State Farm

I have friends who have been independent insurance adjusters for many years. Here's what we've discussed:

During any catastrophe, most of the adjusters working for State Farm have never handled or completed an estimate (or scope) of damages before, much less during a catastrophe. This is because no one I know will work for them. They micro-manage, reduce or increase estimates, and demand that each claim is reworked many times, with different reviewers having different standards. The adjusters who have worked for them before know how to scope without redoing claims, but the experienced adjusters say that SF pays so little that it isn't worth learning their unique system.

I find it hard to believe that SF would destroy engineer's reports. Their exposure would be too great. Because the damage was so catastrophic, they did not use individual engineers for each risk. They had an office set up in Dallas (which was staffed, again, by many new adjusters) who were told to pay the full amount of coverage for houses in certain areas, without inspection, and sent adjusters to others.

I have seen some of the engineer's reports on some houses (not SF insured, but insured by other companies) and not one that I saw was even remotely adequate. All three, by different companies of which I've never heard, gave incompetent and conflicting information. Its as if they threw them together using some standard wording to make a buck. And the insurance company might not reimburse the homeowner if the report shows that coverage should not be extended.

No, I don't think SF discarded engineer's reports. I think that they, along with meteorological reports and other experts, decided that certain areas were damaged by water, and that wind played no part.

High winds preceded the tidal surge in Mississippi and the lower Louisiana parishes. There were a number of eyewitnesses (Sheriff's dept. personnel, emergency personnel, etc) It also doesn't make sense to think that there was no damage done by wind before the water rose. If the homeowner has a flood policy for say, 50K, and homeowners for, say, 100k, and SF or any other insurance company says that it was all flood damage, the homeowners policy pays nothing. If they had no flood insurance, they are completely lost.

Again, I don't know anyone working for SF now, so some of this is just conjecture. I would really like to see how they got their information. I hope that Lott is successful in forcing them to bring it into the open. I think that is the only time in my life I have wished a Repub success in anything.

[pitohui]

16. there is nothing of lott's house or neighborhood but slabs

whatever wind may have done, no one was there to see it and lived

state farm's argument is that the neighborhood was destroyed by storm surge which is probably correct

that said, the whole scam of insurers making excuses not to sell you flood insurance -- and don't say it don't happen, cuz it happened to me and to my neighborhood -- needs to be exposed

gene taylor proposes that the people told not to buy flood insurance and who are now screwed be allowed to pay back payments for a decade's worth of flood insurance in exchange for being included in the program

for the average homeowner, say your house was valued at $75K, flood insurance for zone C (which is why they told you not to buy) was $200 a year, so you pay your $2K deductible and are allowed in the federal program, i don't see the issue, flood insurance is NOT a for profit program anyway, it is a national program because this nation needs people who live in gosh darn flood plains and it don't pay a profit for insurance companies to insure them

now lott's home was valued at $750K, flood insurance for the house is capped at $250K, so naturally he wants to collect under his homeowner's coverage

i can't blame him for trying and i hope he brings some awareness to the issue but he is not going to win this lawsuit and he is prob. even trying to scam a little to be honest

[LouisianaLiberal]

19. Taylor's proposal sounds good,

but I don't think it'll pass.

Flood insurance is capped at 250k coverage for one policy. In other words, its perfectly legal and encouraged to purchase multiple policies for high end dwellings.

I've heard a few people here who say that they were discouraged from buying flood insurance. I wonder how the agents can live with themselves.

As for the storm surge, I've been to the MS coast, and I'm certain that wind did the majority of damgage before the storm surge. New Orleans has an entirely different set of problems.

[pitohui]

31. this is a case of honest people can disagree

i believe what i saw on the mississippi gulf coast was storm surge

[bobbieinok]

27. SF did immediate evaluation + alloted us $$ for fixing hail damage

this happened years ago in IA when we were out of state and our neighbors handled the call and were there for the inspection

also, they were very good in my major car damage case 3 years ago

[zbdent]

11. Trent Lott benefits from the fact that

the other 99.999 percent of Hurricane Katrina victims DON'T have the President promising to rebuild their vacation homes . . .

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Oh, the irony.

[Iowa]

13. I had State Farm insurance for years...

I dropped them several years ago. I had trouble with them which prompted me to do some research. What I read about them caused me to switch - pronto. If you have State Farm, google "State Farm Fraud", or something similar. Take a look at some of the court decisions. We're not just talking fumbling and bumbling here - we're talking scheming, calculating crooks. And Ed Rust (State Farm's CEO) is very tight with *, which should be all that any DUer needs to know.

In case anyone is interested, the trouble I had with SF surrounded the way they calculated my rate when I added a teen driver to the policy. When it was all said and done, I ended up paying LESS with the new insurance company WITH the teen driver, than I had been paying State Farm WITHOUT a teen driver. And I increased my coverage limits with the new company... still paid less. Better coverage, better company, teen driver added, premium less than I had been paying. If you have SF, check it out.

[Hubert Flottz]

18. When a tornado tore up my neighborhood several years ago...

State Farm was the one company that didn't want to pay up. I had already changed to another company by then and I had my money in a couple of weeks. My neighbors fought with State Farm for six months and in the end they didn't get enough money to fix everything the storm ruined. My house and truck were both repaired, long before they ever got a dime out of State Farm. These folks had to live all summer with tarps all over their house. Their car was rusting by the time they had the money to fix the many dents and the cracked and broken glass, caused by the tennis ball sized hail. State Farm was as stingy as their old pal Jack Benny!

[bobbieinok]

28. see my post #27......SF was the fastest responder when many

homes were damaged in our IA town....we had windows replaced, carpets cleaned, plus $$ for roof while friends were still waiting for adjusters' visits

granted, this was 25+ years ago and SF policies/management may have changed drastically since then

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. You mean a rich guy like Trent Lott

own a nice home on the Gulf Coast and didn't bother to buy flood insurance? Federal flood insurance is not that expensive for a guy like Trent. Remind me not to feel bad for him.

[pitohui]

17. they tell you not to buy it

you're not getting it

nat'l flood insurance program is a nat'l program, it is not owned by state farm or allstate or any insurance co. it is a nuisance for them to write the policy, so they tell you that you don't need it

they will even boldly tell you oh honey you're zone c it would be fraud to sell you flood insurance

this is the issue, some agents not wanting to do some extra paperwork costing thousands upon thousands of people their homes and their financial futures

i got no gripe w. state farm, this issue is way bigger than state farm

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. Trent Lott should know better

since he is a part of the legislative body that set up the National Flood Insurance program.

BTW: When my husband & I bought our house, the finance people were the ones that wanted us to get flood insurance because we are on a lake. Turns out we are well above the 100 year flood plain and were not 'required' to get it. When we found out the National Flood Insurance only added another $250 a year to our insurance bill we decided to get it anyway. Not because we are worried about the water coming up from the lake but rather the water coming down the hill trying to get to the lake. That is how we flooded during Hurricane Jeanne. Fortunately, I was home when it happened and was able to prevent any real damage from occurring, even through I had to wash every towel I own when I was done.

[Mojorabbit]

15. They did a fine job when we were hit by Charlie

I have no complaints there... but my sis in Biloxi is having the wind/flood debate problem with them and they still have not paid. They are going with indepent adjusters as are many others to see if something can be done to pressure them.

[LouisianaLiberal]

20. I'm not sure I know what you mean by using

independent adjusters to pressure them. The independents I know really are honorable, and they wouldn't change the nature of their scope unless the evidence supported the change.

Having said that, I have heard horror stories about untrained newer adjusters. However, its best I think to question every line item, but never hire a public adjuster. They're bad news.

[Mojorabbit]

21. I don't understand

the whole procedure to be honest. I know when I was down there after Katrina the whole street was speaking to an independant adjuster as their insurance companies were shafting them. It was to get another opinion in hopes they could have something to sway their insurance companies. State farm was insisting it was flood damage when it was a bit of both. Their neighborhood was totally decimated.

[LouisianaLiberal]

23. I see what you mean.

Independent adjusters are hired by companies to work for them when the damage is too widespread for their staff adjusters to handle.

Maybe the people on the street were talking to a public adjuster. Public adjusters represent the insured against the insurance company, and take a percent of the amount paid. The problem with PAs, and I've run into many of them, is that they put together completely ridiculous estimates that cannot possibly hold up in court. Either their estimates miss a huge amount of damage, or demand that a whole kitchen be replaced when there was only a small leak on the ceiling, or they put things in the estimate that are specifically excluded by all insurance policies, such as plane tickets, differential foundation settling, etc.

Of course I'm generalizing here, but every one I've run into did very poor work, and in the end accepted whatever they could get and left.

New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are worse than most can imagine, as you know. I've been through most of the destroyed areas and am curious. Which part of NO did you see and how high did the water get there?

[Mojorabbit]

30. Yes that is what he was..

a public adjuster. This was in Ocean Springs MS. The neighborhood looked like a bomb had hit it. Debris everywhere eight foot high. The bayou had come up and washed through everything but part of it was wind damage. The water cleared the roofs of the houses. There was a couple who had stayed and saw it all. They said roofs were flying off, windows imploding, etc before the water came up. They ended up swimming in the surge.

I have never seen anything like it in my life. Total devastation..Everyone on the street just wandered around in shock occasionally breaking out in tears. It was awful. We were hit by Charlie here in Fl and had quite a bit of damage but nothing like what I saw in MS. I also went to see my parents vacation house on the gulf and all that was left was the porch slab. It had been up on poles and built to code. Amazing.

[flyarm]

22. remember when idiot son said he was going to sit on lotts new porch with

him??

who remembers that...idiot boy meeting with lott down there saying he was going to sit on Lotts new porch with him..when his house is rebuilt????????

what bullshit these people are going through..

but same shit happened to me and many others when i lost my house in the northridge earthquake ..

we had deductables on everything..deductable for house ..garage, pool, fence interior, personal belongings..they 10% 'ed us to death..

its our lives..but it is a fucking game to these insurance carriers...

they try to out wait you..they deny and you have to keep resending in ..they try to wear you down...

and in many cases they do..

i had many neighbors who gave up and just moved out ..and let the banks take the broken down houses back..their credit was destroyed..

and the people were broken..

don;t let it happen to you billoxi...

my prayers to all who went through katrina...my heart goes out to you all!

fly

[oasis]

24. "Like a good neighbor .........State Farm is there".

Yeah right. :eyes:

[intheflow]

26. I've seen this for myself.

Went to visit merh one day at her place. You can clearly see that branches high atop trees, 60' up, were twisted around and snapped off by wind. I've seen tornado damage to trees, and that's what the tree damage was at merh's. Yet her claim was denied because the insurance company says the water took her house down. :grr:

I don't care if it is Trent Lott leading the charge in his own self-interest. If he can prove this, it will help an awful lot of people.

K&R.

[pitohui]

32. of course you are right

If he can prove this, it will help an awful lot of people.


it will make a difference, perhaps the only time in his life he has the chance to make a difference for good

i'll be honest, i am rooting for him just because of the visibility issue -- me, a lady w. a photo in my hard drive of trent lott decked out as satan!

[Blue_Tires]

29. i don't care

whatever loophole (legal or not) he alleges state farm of using, i promise you that lott helped sign it into law