Progressive apologies for claims handlers’ privacy

The president of Progressive Insurance Co. issued a written apology regarding some over-zealous claims investigators in Georgia.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported about an investigation in 2005 in which two private investigators posing as a couple entered a private support group at Southside Christian Fellowship Church. Their mission was to catch two church members, Bill and Leandra Pitts, in a confession that might discredit them. The pair had been involved in a lawsuit with Progressive over a traffic accident.

“When I read that story I was appalled and, frankly, didn’t believe that it could possibly be accurate. I have since learned that the essential facts in the story are correct. What the investigators and Progressive people involved in that case did was wrong — period. I personally want to apologize to anyone who was affected by this incident,” Progressive President and CEO Glenn Renwick said in the written statement.

“The actions of the investigators and Progressive people involved in this situation were incompatible with our values and inappropriate,” Renwick added.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s article, the private investigators tape-recorded the sessions.

The Pitts have since filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages for an alleged invasion of privacy and breach of confidentiality against Progressive Northern Insurance Co., the insurers’ lawyers and investigators James Purgason Jr. and Paige Weeks of Merlin Investigations.

Georgia Insurance Commissioner John W. Oxendine ordered a market conduct examination and instructed Progressive to preserve claims documents related to the case.

Topics Claims