New North Carolina Insurance Chief Agrees Beach Plan Needs Help
Southeast News • December 1, 2008
North Carolina's new insurance chief agrees with insurance industry critics that the state's backup wind insurance pool, known as the Beach Plan, needs shoring up.
"I have described our Beach Plan ...
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Subject: insurance industry -ethical
Posted On: December 1, 2008, 8:37 am CST
Posted By: chief agrees
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ethical ethical ethical ethical
E-mails support Katrina cases against State Farm, lawyers say
By Michael Kunzelman
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Attorneys for homeowners suing State Farm Insurance after Hurricane Katrina have long accused the insurer of pressuring engineers to alter reports on storm-damaged homes so that policyholders' claims could be denied.
Now, some of these lawyers claim they have evidence to prove their allegation — internal e-mails from an engineering firm that helped State Farm adjust claims after the August 2005 hurricane destroyed thousands of homes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
State Farm denies pressuring engineers to change their conclusions, but the e-mails, obtained by the Associated Press, indicate the company was threatening to dismiss Raleigh, N.C.-based Forensic Analysis & Engineering less than two months after Katrina.
State Farm and other insurers say their homeowner policies cover damage from wind but not rising water, including wind-driven storm surge.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Wednesday that he knew about the e-mails for months as part of his criminal grand jury investigation.
"It is a document that clearly shows State Farm used engineers and coerced engineers to write a report like they wanted," Hood said.
Zach Scruggs, part of a legal team that sued State Farm on behalf of hundreds of homeowners, said Forensic turned over the e-mails as part of the pretrial discovery for one of the lawsuits. He said they "confirm everything that we have always suspected."
The e-mails exchanged between Robert Kochan, Forensic's president and CEO, and Randy Down, the firm's vice president of engineering services, outline complaints against their firm's work from Alexis King, a State Farm manager in Mississippi.
Kochan, in an e-mail dated Oct. 17, 2005, says the firm will continue working with State Farm but talks about needing to "redo the wording" of a report after a discussion with King so "that the conclusions are better supported."
The e-mail also says King didn't want local engineers to inspect properties because they were "too emotionally involved" and were "working very hard to find justifications to call it wind damage when the facts only show water induced damage." She was also apparently upset that a report was based upon eyewitness accounts, the e-mail said.
In a reply dated Oct. 18, 2005, Down questioned the insurer's motivations and questioned whether there was an ethical problem with State Farm telling the firm what to put in reports. He also suggested that on another occasion, State Farm asked the firm to remove information from a report because "they would then have to settle."
Kochan said in an interview, however, that plaintiffs' attorneys are taking the e-mails out of context. King "just felt like we weren't doing a technically accurate job," but she wasn't pressuring Forensic to change conclusions so that claims could be denied, he said.
State Farm spokesman Phil Supple said the company did not pressure engineers to alter their conclusions. "Our employees are committed to conducting themselves in an ethical and appropriate manner," he said. with chief agrees insurance industry .
Adding wind coverage to the current federal flood and wind insurance program could benefit some policyholders, so why don't we add fire, theft or maybe even no-fault insurance so the government can cover all of the risks that the insurance companies are paid to cover but can't seem to pay for. Jeez, let's screw the consumer twice. And State Farm needs to be sued for their "Good Neighbor" commercials because we all know that that is "bull". Wake up America!
Subject: insurance industry -ethical
Home News Travel Money Sports Life Tech WeatherPrint edition News Inside News
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Health
States
Washington
Essentials
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Offbeat
Lotteries
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Cars Event tickets Jobs Real estate Shop Online degrees
Today's Sections • News • Sports • Money • Life • Previous editions: 10/22/2008 10/21/2008 10/20/2008 10/17/2008 10/16/2008 10/15/2008 10/14/2008 10/13/2008 10/10/2008 10/09/2008 10/08/2008 10/07/2008 10/06/2008 10/03/2008 • Search Archives
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ethical ethical ethical ethical
E-mails support Katrina cases against State Farm, lawyers say
By Michael Kunzelman
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Attorneys for homeowners suing State Farm Insurance after Hurricane Katrina have long accused the insurer of pressuring engineers to alter reports on storm-damaged homes so that policyholders' claims could be denied.
Now, some of these lawyers claim they have evidence to prove their allegation — internal e-mails from an engineering firm that helped State Farm adjust claims after the August 2005 hurricane destroyed thousands of homes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
State Farm denies pressuring engineers to change their conclusions, but the e-mails, obtained by the Associated Press, indicate the company was threatening to dismiss Raleigh, N.C.-based Forensic Analysis & Engineering less than two months after Katrina.
State Farm and other insurers say their homeowner policies cover damage from wind but not rising water, including wind-driven storm surge.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Wednesday that he knew about the e-mails for months as part of his criminal grand jury investigation.
"It is a document that clearly shows State Farm used engineers and coerced engineers to write a report like they wanted," Hood said.
Zach Scruggs, part of a legal team that sued State Farm on behalf of hundreds of homeowners, said Forensic turned over the e-mails as part of the pretrial discovery for one of the lawsuits. He said they "confirm everything that we have always suspected."
The e-mails exchanged between Robert Kochan, Forensic's president and CEO, and Randy Down, the firm's vice president of engineering services, outline complaints against their firm's work from Alexis King, a State Farm manager in Mississippi.
Kochan, in an e-mail dated Oct. 17, 2005, says the firm will continue working with State Farm but talks about needing to "redo the wording" of a report after a discussion with King so "that the conclusions are better supported."
The e-mail also says King didn't want local engineers to inspect properties because they were "too emotionally involved" and were "working very hard to find justifications to call it wind damage when the facts only show water induced damage." She was also apparently upset that a report was based upon eyewitness accounts, the e-mail said.
In a reply dated Oct. 18, 2005, Down questioned the insurer's motivations and questioned whether there was an ethical problem with State Farm telling the firm what to put in reports. He also suggested that on another occasion, State Farm asked the firm to remove information from a report because "they would then have to settle."
Kochan said in an interview, however, that plaintiffs' attorneys are taking the e-mails out of context. King "just felt like we weren't doing a technically accurate job," but she wasn't pressuring Forensic to change conclusions so that claims could be denied, he said.
State Farm spokesman Phil Supple said the company did not pressure engineers to alter their conclusions. "Our employees are committed to conducting themselves in an ethical and appropriate manner," he said. with chief agrees insurance industry .
Adding wind coverage to the current federal flood and wind insurance program could benefit some policyholders, so why don't we add fire, theft or maybe even no-fault insurance so the government can cover all of the risks that the insurance companies are paid to cover but can't seem to pay for. Jeez, let's screw the consumer twice. And State Farm needs to be sued for their "Good Neighbor" commercials because we all know that that is "bull". Wake up America!