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Allstate (fwd)



This came to me on the ZX list, I thought I would share
with you guys and gals as well.

Thomas

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Thomas Emberson  <Thomas@xxxxxxx>
QNX Software Systems Inc.
5025 Arapaho Road, Suite 406, Dallas, 75248
(972) 851-6945 (voice)  (972) 851-6944 (fax)
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- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 15:00:52 -0800
From: Chris Runhaar <Chris_Runhaar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "ZX Mailing List (E-mail)" <zx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Allstate

Hey Kevin!  I read an article last night that I thought I'd
share with you and other interested parties.  I hope it doesn't
dredge up too many unpleasant memories.  I also hope it doesn't
restart the insurance thread.  Oh well, here it is.

In the February 7, 2000 issue of Forbes on page 60:

No more Mr. nice guy from Allstate Insurance Co.  For the last
few years the good-hands company has been playing hardball with
injury claims coming out of minor auto accidents.  Allstate
first offers low settlements.  If the claimant insists on a
trial, it adopts scorched-earth litigation tactics that force
the other side to spend heavily on legal costs.

"We're not here to play games and trade dollars," says an
unapologetic Billie J. Cohen, an Allstate assistant vice
president.  The company began its get-tough policy after a
McKinsey consultants study concluded the company was overpaying
on claims for "soft tissue" auto injuries.  These are things
like whiplash, sprains and bruises, which don't show up on
X-rays and thus are difficult to prove.

The strategy is working better than perhaps even Allstate expected.
One sign: Frustrated plaintiff lawyers are scrambling to attend
standing-room-only seminars with the rather unsubtle title, "How
to Hammer Allstate."  Patrick LePley, a BelleVue WA attorney, held
the first such seminar last year.  Since then lawyer organizations
in Texas, Connecticut ans Louisiana have held seminars on how to
impeach Allstate's experts.  Even the attorneys' main lobbying
group, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, staged a four-
hour conference call last October, drawing 700 listeners.

Says an angry LePley, "Allstate figures if they fight hard enough
and file enough appeals and motions on small claims that the
claimants will give up."

Actually, it's the lawyers who are giving up.  Those who aren't
attending the how-to-hammer sessions are more and more declining
to represent clients with small claims against Allstate.

[There's more, but I'm sick of transcribing.]
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