Posted On: June 22, 2008

A Georgia Lawyer Looking Back at CNN's story on Allstate and State Farm

For those of you that never read this article by CNN exposing State Farm and Allstate for adopting a combative strategy of deny, delay defend with regard to handling their claims, I strongly recommend it. You can draw your own conclusions from the research, but I can tell you that from my experience litigating both as an insurance defense attorney and as a plaintiff's attorney, they are spot on.The article highlights evidence that came to light in a series of lawsuits against Allstate and State Farm by plaintiffs that had been low-balled and the juries saw the truth. The portion of the article dealing with the consulting firm's recommendations is stunning. The strategy of deny, delay and defend is put into practice across the board by these carriers and others and I am finding that I am taking more and more of my cases all the way to jury trial in order to obtain fair compensation.

The problems in this industry lie at both ends of the spectrum. Insurance companies are turning a blind eye on legitimate injury cases and some plaintiffs lawyers are ignoring common sense and turning a blind eye when they know that they are putting up a less than legitimate case. The fact is that this industry would be better for the public as a whole if both sides would step back and take a realistic approach to handling injury cases.

If you want to discuss the state of the industry further, this Georgia personal injury lawyer is always interested.

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Posted On: June 1, 2008

Genetic Anti-Discrimination Bill

In an amazing show of unity, the Senate passed the bill unanimously and the House only had one Nay. President Bush signed it into Law on May 22, 2008. The bill has been a long time coming and bars health insurers from asking for or using genetic information to make a decision about whether to cover a person or how high to set the premiums.

Although there were already some protections for insureds with group health insurance under existing federal law, those who are self-employed and buy their own coverage previously had no guarantees that their genetic information would not be used against them.

One component in particular is a big benefit because it keeps an insurer from raising premiums for a group insured as a small business just because one member has a genetic predisposition to a particular illness or malady.

The legislation is impressive in that it is the first foray into the field of genetic civil rights. Each of us is predisposed to living a certain length of time, going bald, being able to curl our tongue or being a carrier for a particularly virulent type of breast cancer and health insurers know it. Health insurers look at many factors to assess risk including age, occupation, smoking etc. This legislation has drawn a bright line beyond which no insurer can look to prevent insurers from providing coverage to the least vulnerable and leaving everyone else out in the cold. What do you think about it?

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108531.php

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