Suing State Farm?

[Dave020]

If you are sure you are in the right here in respect to the change of coverage, talk to the JAG office.

This is beyond anything anyone on an insurance forum can help you with, and you need legal help.

 

[djs]

No need to over-react with a bunch of legal stuff, yet.

I'd talk with the agent. Be firm, understand his position, but then make sure he understands yours.

There is nothing underhanded here, the agents office did what they THOUGHT was the right thing, trying to save you a few premium dollars. Their mistake (actually several) was in knowing that you had a lienholder on the car, they could NOT do something to remove collission coverage on the car, knowing that doing so would cause a force place by the lienholder, costing you additional dollars.

So, provided your brother was insured as a driver on the truck (even if permissive, but that is a different can of worms), have your agent either convince State Farm to cover the claim, OR file the claim against his E&O policy. Either way, it will get taken care of (again, make sure your brother is an eligible driver, or else they will simply decline it based on him driving).

Realize that I frequently get people who state they wanted certain coverages, or didn't want coverages removed, swear up and down that they said this or that or didn't say or whatever. I then usually produce the signed form or the recorded call. My point being you better make sure that you didn't say to change the policy before you simply accuse someone of doing it without your permission. A conversation clearly took place. It is never as simple as it seems.

Dan

 

[Josh]

Silly question and maybe someone already asked it and it's been answered, but was your brother listed on the policy?

The other issue was that you did ask about cheaper premiums and you're already admitting to that. If someone asks about the cheaper premiums and will be out of the country, it makes sense to make it a storage policy. Even if you sue, like someone already said, it's going to be your word against the office staff that changed the policy. If you asked about cheaper premiums and were going to be out of the country and no one else was listed on the policy, then they seem to be in a very defendable position. If your brother wasn't listed on the policy then they could deny it off of that fact alone.

Does your brother have car insurance? My guess is not, but if he does, you can usually claim against his. All of that can vary by state.

 

[djs]

Oops, the rules just changed. This may vary in MANY states, but in California, most carriers would DENY this claim.

Why? Your brother lived in the house and wasn't named on the policy. This will void the permissive user clause of almost every policy. I assume you are in Illinois, so I can't help with specific policy language, but, go read your actual policy and see what the definition of covered driver is. Chances are, your brother will not be a covered driver.

Why is this? Many policies allow for permissive users. This is the infrequent driver that may borrow your car, such as your neighbor because their car broke down and they needed to go to work. It does not cover people in the household. This prevents families from 'inadvertently' leaving off individuals with less than stellar driving records.

Now, if he was a person listed on your policy as living in the home, but not rated due to other insurance (and not excluded), then I'll go work for State Farm since very few carriers allow this, but, he should then be covered.

Never as simple as it seems.

Hopefully the damage was pretty minimal. I assume nobody got hurt, since that wasn't mentioned.

Dan

 

[insurance1822]

Happens all the time, you called to make your premiums cheaper because you were deploying; I would have informed you of the option to suspend your policy and informed you of how your coverage changes. Most people "oh..ok..yeah...yep...do that....ok" then when it works out against them...they get amnesia.

I wish you the best of luck; if that were me I wouldn't suspend anything without an email, letter or signature from you...because when consumers are put into corners they all of a sudden forget...or remember what benefits them.

Let this be a message to all agents...get everything in writing, ask for a simple email, notate the account "advised the insured of the risks associated with making this change, the potential for financial loss, insured acknowledged and requested the change" At least it's time stamped.

Chances are the secretary forgot that consumers don't truely understand the insurance lingo we throw around on the regular and just said "yeah we can suspend the policy it will lower your premiums significantly" Insured said "great"

We have just installed a Voice Over IP phone program that records every single phone call in/out of the office automatically and saves it every day to an external hardrive and 3rd party off-site date backup...and this is EXACTLY WHY. Chances are if this guy pushes it enough, state farm will crumble or his E&O will kick in.

 

[Cath]

State Farm would like to help you. Please have a family member contact the Executive Customer Service team and ask for Cathy. The number is: (309) 766-1821.

 

[VolAgent]

Told you to make a stink. Looks like they are going to take care of you in the name of PR. The only question is, will the agent and CSR get thrown under the bus in the process.

 

[Surfy]

I'm new here and State Farm is one of my competitors but I am really surprised that they are pulling this, especially with you serving our country overseas. I thank you for your service.

Surfy

 

[txagt39]

Currently serving in the military, during a deployment my truck was in an accident in Illinois. My brother was driving my truck and State Farm denied my claim. I had and still have full coverage insurance in which they still accept payment. Their reasoning for denying me is because they claim i changed my policy to a storage policy before my deployment. This is not the case. When i ask for proof that i changed my coverage my agent says it was by "word of mouth". I never signed anything changing my policy nor did i even tell them to change it. Any suggestions?

First try filing a complaint with your State Board of Insurance, you've got grounds. The agent who processed the change is responsible. Anytime an agent takes anything away from an insured they better have signed authorization that will stand up in court. You probably won't have to take it that far, a complaint with TDI will probably force the company to do the right thing whether the agent wants to or not. He has E&O also so there's another venue. That's why we carry it. If he failed to get your signature even if you asked him verbally to make the change in status, it's still on him, or his E&O carrier if he didn't get signed authorization. Take the right channels and it will work out, you have the best chance of prevailing UNLESS the agent did get your signature which the company probably woudn't have required, if he's smart to protect and cover his _ _ _ as we say. If you can't prove it, it wasn't authorized so you have the advantage. They can setup your policy to non-renew if you had an undisclosed driver...which is a whole other issue.

 

[djs]

A signed form probably isn't the gating item. Turns out, I bet the carrier sent out a change form that the insured had the right to dispute the change. While I agree, getting the insured to sign something is always best, it's not the agents only defense. There is no doubt the conversation took place. Just the outcome of the conversation is tough to determine.

Where the agent has a problem, is he did the wrong thing for the client if there is a lienholder.

Where the insured has a problem is the undisclosed driver, which will cause a denial anyway (maybe, some strange circumstances here that aren't clear to me). If the brother lives at the garaging address of the truck, then its an undisclosed driver.

To many missing pieces to the story here.

Dan