Allstate remains one of the largest insurance companies in the United States and probably the world. It still makes its headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois a Chicago suburb. Allstate has reported that it handles more than six million claims each year of varying kinds. Allstate, like State Farm and other giant insurance companies have many different insurance types. Allstate covers cars, trucks, homes, businesses that include casualty, liability and fire. To give an idea of the size of Allstate’s reach in the insurance industry, it pays out in claims approximately $15 billion each year. That is a staggering number but pales in comparison to the amount of its receipts in premiums it receives from policyholders.
In Illinois today, Allstate Insurance Company, which almost everyone knows from its once association with Sears and the never-ending television advertising campaigns, has become a very difficult company to deal with for car accidents and injured clients. Many Chicago area lawyers refer to Allstate as a new “substandard” when it comes to handling and fairly paying for legitimate injuries to our clients. That is not a compliment. In fact Allstate adjusters regularly undervalue the claims that we have brought to them in recent years.
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling claims with Allstate adjusters for most of the 40 years we have been in practice in Chicago area.
Allstate is known to have changed its claims practices some years ago to either low-ball offer to settle outstanding claims or to stall or delay settlements until a lawsuit has been filed and the case is set for trial. The old adage of “we have the money and you don’t” seems to be its philosophy.
Another of the black marks on Allstate’s stance on claims management in auto cases is the fact that it uses a computer system, Colossus that takes away the individual adjuster’s careful analysis of a claim and hands it off to a computer software program. Colossus makes a calculation for each injury claim made. The software considers the severity of the injuries, the age of the person (our client), the driving record of the client and perhaps Kreisman Law Offices reputation or history of taking cases to trial.
Although Allstate’s new reputation on handling Chicago area car accident claims is not good, it remains on a higher level than Geico, Progressive and some of the really unfortunate substandard insurance companies that come up regularly. Those substandard insurance companies include Founders, Unique and Safeway, and many others that typically insure high-risk drivers at low cost and usually allowing only the minimum liability coverage of $20,000 or $25,000 per occurrence.
Over the years, Kreisman Law Offices has had many claims and cases with Allstate Insurance Company and its lawyers. Like most auto cases, they usually settle before trial. Some however go through the filing of a lawsuit, discovery, including the taking of depositions of the parties before the case is resolved.
In the Chicago area, Allstate uses its own inside or captive law firms or in some cases will assign cases to other local law firms. We are familiar with both of these groups of lawyers having dealt with both many times. In the cases where the injury to our client is severe and the result may be in excess of Allstate’s policy limits, those cases usually wind up with one of the outside law firms for handling.
If you or someone who know and love has been injured by an Allstate insured you will need to contact lawyers with experience in handling cases with Allstate. Allstate may claim to be the “Good Hands” people, but really that’s not the case with claims made against its insureds. You should call Kreisman Law Offices 24 hours each day at 312.346.0045 or our toll-free number, 800.583.8002 for free evaluation and consultation regarding your case. Don’t risk being mistreated by Allstate when you can receive expert advice.