Leesburg Florida car accident lawyer explains why he dislikes Farmers group of insurance companies.
Farmers Group of Insurance Companies has been on a buying and merger binge of late. In Florida, Farmers automobile personal lines has purchased Bristol West Insurance Company, Security National, and in 2010, purchased 21st Century Insurance from AIG. Foremost Insurance which writes some low end policies is also in Florida.
Farmers started in Los Angeles in 1928 and it claims to be the third largest personal lines insurance company in the United States. Farmers made the AAJ’s list of worst insurance companies to deal with. I agree with the AAJ’s assessment.
Dealing with Farmers in Car Accident Claims
As a general rule, we do not care for Farmers. Since its expansion, the claims process has been disorganized. Claims have been shuffled from insurance adjuster to insurance adjuster. The Orlando region has an office, which appears to have most the 21st Century adjusters that stayed on with Company. Davie has adjusters in the old Bristol West offices and Hollywood has a claims office with the Security National folks.
Farmers has recently gone to a national document center in Oklahoma. Every piece of correspondence must be sent to Oklahoma where it is electronically stored and then farmed out to the individual claims adjusters. This seems to delay communication with the adjusters.
In the past, it was reported that Farmers used a claims management software, such as Colossus, to determine the range of settlement in car accident cases. I recently called an adjuster out on this when her offer was not in line with the accident and client’s injuries. The claims adjuster denied that she was using a claims management computer program. However, based on our experience in dealing with adjusters from companies who do and do not use claims management software, Farmers adjusters do not appear to have much authority to negotiate and resolve cases. The other thing that can be going on is that the insurance adjusters have very limited authority and there a multiple levels of adjusters with different authority and that is why clients’ claims are shifted around.
Filing a lawsuit against Farmers
If a lawsuit is filed against Farmers, it is likely that the lawsuit will be handled by in-house lawyers, staff counsel. In my experience, Farmers’ staff counsel also have no real authority to get cases resolved. In the end, I do not have anything nice to say about my dealings with the company.
If you have any questions about Farmers Insurance or would like a copy of my free book, fill out the internet consultation form on the right or give me a call at 352-267-9168.