I was rear-ended by someone insured by Allstate on 10/28 in Atlanta, Georgia. The driver was proven guilty in court. The suit against Allstate, as of 5/25, is STILL ongoing. They are deliberately dragging this out to torture me.
Before I had an attorney, when I had to deal with them alone, I communicated with an Allstate adjuster who was rude, condescending and dishonest. She did not read the police report, and she continued to deliberately mispronounce my name with emphasis multiple times after being corrected twice. I went over her head to another person who claimed to be that adjuster's supervisor. That person gave me false deadlines, and when I told her I was getting a lawyer, she became very rude and tried to intimidate me, saying, "I would advise you not to do that." Eventually the case was passed to another adjuster, who has deliberately done everything she can to drag this out and delay payment.
My medical expenses are $7,458.83, plus lost wages of $462.64, then $242.50 to file suit in state court, plus the expense of transportation to and from medical appointments and my attorney's office and the additional expense of photocopying, printing and faxing. To this day I am still in pain, and those figures do not include ongoing treatments. My quality of life was negatively impacted, marital relations with my spouse were negatively impacted, and because of my pain we have had to postpone starting our family. Before the wreck we had planned to have our first child in 2010. The stress, depression, anxiety and mental anguish this has caused me are significant.
My attorney and I demanded $20,000.00 to cover these things. The adjuster forced him to fax over my work records (as proof of lost wages) TWICE. She constantly requested documents, and every time we fulfilled the requests, she would say they were insufficient or claim she did not have them and force us to send them again, or fax them to multiple numbers. She usually failed to respond in a timely manner, and it was a constant game of phone, voicemail, fax and email tag.
When the adjuster finally responded with a settlement offer, it was $6,928.00. My lawyer does not work for free. He will get his fees, and what is left for me has to pay my bills and compensate me for the other expenses, wasted time, pain, suffering and mental anguish. After fighting with them, Allstate's attorney recently offered to increase the settlement to $8,000.00. After my lawyer gets paid, the remainder will not even be enough to cover my medical bills.
The driver who hit me was required by Georgia law to have insurance on her car. When she got her policy with Allstate, she paid them money in exchange for insurance. They agreed to protect her from financial liability in the event that she was at fault for a collision. They are doing a poor job of protecting her; they are flatly refusing to do the job they were paid to do. They basically took her money and ran, because now I will have to sue HER to get the money Allstate is refusing to pay. After becoming acquainted with her in court, I do not think she has that kind of money. Do you think she is going to be pleased with Allstate's "boxing gloves" service? If Allstate would just do its job and pay, I would not have to sue her. I never wanted to sue her. I just wanted the insurance company she hired for liability protection to properly compensate me for my losses, which is what they are supposed to do.
I and the driver who rear-ended me are not the first people to be treated this way by Allstate. They have a long history of abusing people, as you can see right here on this site. When does it end? When they accept money from a person, then refuse to provide the agreed-upon service (in this case liability protection for the other driver), that is basically theft. It is no different than ordering a product from a catalogue and never receiving it.
Allstate representatives have deliberately caused me unnecessary financial hardship and psychological distress by intentionally wasting time, delaying payment, insulting me, attempting to intimidate me, treating me poorly and refusing to pay the reasonable sum of $20,000, which is required to adequately compensate me for my losses and suffering. These include three adjusters, one of whom claimed to be a supervisor, and the company's attorney. I have no doubt they are also causing their customer unnecessary psychological distress and financial hardship by refusing to compensate me.
FYI: According to the Wall Street Journal, as of March 10, Allstate's CEO makes $9.3 million per year, after an 11% pay decrease.
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