St. Cloud Personal Injury Lawyer - Allstate

Fair Value for My Destroyed Car - Part 2 -The Conciliation Court Trap

Joe Crumley — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:40:00 GMT

Dealing with Insurance Companies after a car wreck can be a real pain. Your car is destroyed, and you need a new one. Insurance companies don't always agree about the value of your car, or who caused the crash. Sometimes there's no insurance at all. These articles will address a few problems and suggestions for dealing with propert damage problems.

Sometimes a person injured in a car wreck may want to go to Conciliation Court for the car damage? That's a bad idea in Minnesota.

Conciliation Court, also known as "small claims court" or "the People's Court" is a simplified court process to allow small, simple money claims to be decided without a full blown jury trial. It's usually cheaper, quicker, and the rules and procedures are simpler. One catch.... in Minnesota, the loser can pay a fee and appeal a concilation court decision to start over in "full-blown" District Court.

The problem starts when a person injured in a car crash can't get their car damage paid and decides to go to concilation court. Minnesota courts have decided that bringing the concilation court property damage claim can kill any personal injury claim unless it's brought at the same time. So you could win in Concilation court for a few thousand, and not have any personal injury claim to bring.

In the case, called Mattson v. Packman, the court said there may be ways of "undoing" the judgment from the mistaken trip to concilation court.

So if you've been injured and you've gone to conciliation court, call a lawyer. And if you're thinking of going to concilation court.... call a lawyer!

A future installment of this article will suggest alternative ways to get your property damage paid.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Crumley

Fair Value for My Destroyed Car - Part I

Joe Crumley — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:40:00 GMT

Getting your car damage paid after a car wreck can be a real pain. Your car is destroyed, and you need a new one. Or maybe you just some damage repaired.

Insurance companies don't always agree about the value of your car, or who caused the crash. Sometimes there's no insurance at all. These articles will address a few problems and suggestions for dealing with property damage claim problems.

Admitted liability. If the other driver is insured, and the insurance company admits 100% fault, that company is your best bet. Submitting to the at-fault insurer has several advantages:

· You have no deductible - 100% recovery

· Replacement vehicle payment

· Personal property payment (for those broken golf clubs)

· Rental car payment

Disputes. What happens when the insurance company does not admit 100% fault, or says your car ws worth less than you think? Minnesota law does require the insurer to make a “good faith assignment of comparative fault” the issue is not always easily resolved. Too many insurers adhere to the illegal and false myth that “any driver gets 10% for being there,” but what can you do?

You could sue the other guy in small claims court (conciliation court), but that's probably a bad idea if you're injured. I'll explain why in the next installment

Spouse or co-owner can go to court. If there is a spouse or other co-owner that was not injured in the car accident, they can safely bring the conciliation court property damage action in their own name. As long as they are listed as an owner of the vehicle, they certainly have standing to bring the claim. And it should not interfere with the injury claim.

Your Own Insurance? I you have so-called “full coverage”, including collision and comprehensive coverage, with a relatively low deductible, that may be a better choice when the other guy's insurance is making a lowball offer. You do have to pay your deductible, but then your insurer will try to get all the money back from the other driver's insurance.... and they have to pay you back a fair percentage of your deductible.

What happens, though, when your client’s own company makes a low ball offer on the property damage? Again, the Fair Claims Act requires the insurer to make a fair offer, but reasonable minds sometimes disagree on what’s reasonable.

Many lawyers are unaware that their familiar and well-used remedy of No-Fault Arbitration actually includes first party collision and comprehensive disputes. The rules are the same; in fact, they are literally the same set of rules. Your lawyer can simply take the form out of the desk, assemble the proof, and arbitrate that claim!

Worst case scenario. Finally, if you have no collision coverage, the other driver has no insurance, or the insurer is low-balling the property damage offer, the injured person may have to wait. For example when the car is drivable, you may be best served by waiting until the liability case is tried or settled. If settled, when you’ve gotten their best offer on the injuries, then you can go to Conciliation court.

Sadly, if the car needs to be repaired, you will be on the hook until the PI case is ready to settle.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Crumley

Are The Chickens Coming Home To Roost For Allstate?

Mike Bryant — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Interesting that this week Allstate announced they are losing customers. Their revenues are down and they have now vowed to do a better job. Chief Executive Tom Wilson said the insurer was trying to stem the loss of customers whom he fears are unhappy with its services. "We are losing too many, we think because they are not happy," Wilson said.

This is interesting news. Maybe they have been reading:

April Arman : All State and State Farm in Lott's Crosshairs

Mike Ferrara : Allstate is Cooking the Books

Jeffrey Meldon : Allstate Admits it has Dirty Hands

And one of my favorites: Been Treated Like Dirt by Allstate Insurance? Now We Know Why.

Injuryboard members have been pointing out the problems for some time. Hopefully, Allstate means it when they say they are looking at treating people the way their commercials suggest they do. It's time to get out of the frivolous defense business.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Fox In The Henhouse- Are We Better Off With The New AIG CEO

Mike Bryant — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:56:04 GMT

The recent shocking news of AIG's financial problems has lead to a number of questions about where they go from here. Of great concern is their most recent move to put former Allstate chief Edward M. Liddy in charge. The press release touted how he decimated Allstate's ranks to save costs and firmly pushed the old-fashioned insurer in the direction of the internet.

The recent problems with Allstate's actions while Mr. Libby was in control have been well documented in other InjuryBoard's Blogs:

Jeffrey Meldon : Allstate Admits it has Dirty Hands

Brent Adams : You Are Not In Good Hands With Allstate

Steve Klearman : AAJ: Allstate Worst Insurance Company in America

Don Jacobs : Allstate insurance tactics revealed in new book

Diego Madrigal : AllState Wins the Worst Insurance Company Championship.

It's of great concern that the worst voted insurance company CEO is now being turned to as a solution. Allstate was sanctioned in a number of states and had their insurance license pulled for a while in Florida. AIG has some big problems, hopefully things won't get worse.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Bryant

Allstate Tops the List- Not In A Consumer Friendly Way

Michael Bryant — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:52:10 GMT

Allstate Insurance Company topped the list of the "Worst Insurance Companies in America" in a report released by the American Association for Justice. Allstate earned their ranking, using a style that is best described as "Deny, Delay, Defend" . Basically not paying justified claims . As a consumer this can mean two things for you. They will fight you if they are your company and you make a claim. And they will fight you if you are unfortunately injured by someone they insure through no fault of your own. . A closer look at the reason for the denials seems to be maintaining and growing average profits of over 30 billion per year and CEO's that are being paid on average 8.9 million in 2007. So it doesn't seem to have anything to do with protecting the premium dollar. For any consumer, this costs each of those injured more time and expenses as claims are wrongfully denied.

The Rest of the Ten 2. Unum 3. AIG 4 State Farm 5 Conseco 6 Well Point 7 Farmers 8 United Health 9 Torchmark 10 Liberty Mutual

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Michael Bryant