Recent Allstate Commercial

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 06:43 pm Post Subject: Simple Facts

To clarify one point, if someone wants to confess judgment in a smaller type case (person v. person, no insurance involved) many times that is the only way to resolve it. In most states, even a confession of judgment is only an extremely difficult to foreclose upon lien on real estate - the party holding the judgment is hoping - usually fruitlessly - that the person owing the judgment will want to buy or sell real estate during the period of the judgment. In such cases, a $1300 judgment is actually a pretty small item to take care of at a real estate closing, many times the creditor will waive interest to get it (finally) paid, and the lucky thing happens. Once I had a guy (our judgments are good for 10 years) call me after 9 years, his wife had found a house they HAD to buy, I told my client to waive the interest, he paid off the judgment out of closing, everyone happy. Debtor got a break, creditor got money he had long forgotten about, I even made a small fee (finally after having done the work almost 10 years earlier.)

Every state's law is different on such matters. Bankruptcy law is mostly federal but even there some of the exemptions are based on individual state law. Just a disclaimer.

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 07:43 pm Post Subject:

Lori, my UPL, Pro Say, Per Se' S.A.F.E. understanding of that Florida wages garnishment statute is that no disposable wages up to $500 per week of the head of family can be garnished and if one has disposable income above $500 per week the head of family has to agree in writing to the garnishment otherwise like the statute says:

(b) Disposable earnings of a head of a family, which are greater than $500 a week, may not be attached or garnished unless such person has agreed otherwise in writing.

ok....I know that flordia sure does have an awful lot of attorneys willing to accept judgement satisfaction cases on a conten. basis....so someone is collecting these judgements Gary.

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 09:05 pm Post Subject:

I know Florida is very kind to...um...how to say....those who are guilty/responsible for bringing pain upon others (OJ, Head of MCI, etc).

Love the state...we go to the beach at least three times a year.

I'll just say I'm glad that I'm not an agent there.

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:08 pm Post Subject: Simple Facts

True, Gary, 95 percent of all our cases are resolved without a judgment being involved. Half of the rest of them have to have a judgment recorded for some technical purpose, the other half percent are oddballs of one kind or another - way out on the edge of the bell curve - outliers. Most cases only wind up going all the way to a jury when one side or another is too stubborn to listen to reason. Not often, since we do this all the time, and we pretty much know what is fair for most cases. We also do a lot of ADR (mediation, arbitration, etc.) The number of cases that go all the way to jury trials and then to judgments are very very small. And most of the time it is the insurance company refusing to pay a fair settlement, rather than someone who wants too much. Why do you think Allstate wants to poison people's minds? So they can have a better chance in court when they shortchange someone. Sad, but true. Unfortunately, injured people don't have a lobby (except for trial lawyers, which term has been so poisoned itself that "everyone hates them").

The lawyers who advertise are not of my species - honorable attorneys mostly despise them, they only bring more criticism to a rather noble profession - helping people who are hurt and need help. I am proud of what I do, and so are most all the lawyers who do what I do - it isn't easy money - and the Allstates of the world fight dirty against nice people - like you!

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:27 pm Post Subject:

Come on Every...tell us how you really feel. Don't hold back.

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 02:07 am Post Subject: Every Day

Great posts! Right on the money.

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 08:59 am Post Subject:

Yes, the auto accident attorneys

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 07:46 pm Post Subject:

Quite a discussion started from something so simple. The main thing for me in this entire thing is the discussion started out of the commercial. I don't personally care if the commercial is right, wrong, good or bad. I persoally think it helps for my customers or others customers to talk to me to discuss what the commercial implies. I have so many customers call me for quotes or any other reason and they have not the slightest idea what I'm talking about when I start talking about limits. Now this is not some 16 year old that is just learning how to drive and learning about insurance. This is the 45 year old male warehouse working or 29 year old female nurse (just examples...no sexist bias on the choice of employment). This blows my mind when I'm trying to figure out what they have and what they need.

I think it is interesting how it has been stated to make sure you have substantial UIM. I don't know about where any of you reside but in my state you cannot have a UIM higher than your BI. So to me you need to have a higher BI to make sure you have a higher UIM.

As far as the attorneys in this thread...thank you for your cooperation in letting us know the law...in your state. In other states there are different laws and issues. As for FL...I would hate to be an agent down there because I would be the agent constantly trying to sell appropriate coverage and losing business to the agent underselling.

Oh well...I'll stay where I am.

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:59 pm Post Subject: Simple Facts

Good point, Slappy.

I did not go into the "UIM cannot be higher than your liability limits" on purpose, it just adds another layer of difficulty to an already difficult to explain topic. I don't know how many states have that requirement, but mine does for both UM and UIM. It is a good policy, otherwise, you could carry peanuts for liability and a lot of UM and UIM. I carry good liability limits because I want to be able to carry high UM and UIM limits to match.

Anything that gets people to talk to their insurance agents about what they really need - and we all hope to get good advice for their state and their situation - is not all bad.

Allstate could have just said that. Instead, once again, the world's worst insurance company in terms of how they treat their claimants and customers (check the polls) injects half truths, lawsuit bashing, and distrust of the jury system into the ad. Its easy to see when you are sensitive to it, as so many of us lawyers - with reason - are.

Insurance coverage is complicated, and unfortunately too many people I talk to - when it is too late - got their explanations about what all the different coverages mean - from someone who did not really understand. Let's face it - if you really understand what UIM does - there is NO way you are going to sign a form rejecting it. What's needed is for it to be mandatory - no big thing, since in my state UM in the same limit as liability is mandatory now.

Hard to sit across the table and have to tell a family that because they chose not to buy UIM or sufficient UIM the drunk driver with minimum limits who maimed their loved one pays his $25K and there is no where else to turn for monetary relief in the court system.

Most people are judgment proof - and no amount of anger or vindictiveness will change that fact. Carry good insurance - and if you need more liability so you can carry more UIM, do it. Med Pay is a great feature that too many ignore also. I carry 10K on each of my vehicles for what amounts to pennies. It pays medical bills regardless of fault - and usually quickly.

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:38 am Post Subject:

Medpay used to be a cheap coverage in my state as well, (it also covers many funeral expenses)...I don't know what happened, but it's higher than a cats back now...re: UIM, it's a great coverage, and I agree I wish all states required it, or minimally rquired insured's to sign a waiver, not in my state anyway, manditory bi/pd/um 25/50/10/25/50, and that's it...