After his sister was killed by a reckless, underinsured driver, Matt Fisher and his family were forced to sue to try to collect the insurance policy on which his sister had been paying.
Originally posted at mattfisher.tumblr.com.
I’ve been sending out some impertinent tweets about Progressive Insurance lately, but I haven’t explained how they pissed me off. So I will do that here as succinctly as possible. There’s a general understanding that says, “insurance companies— oh they’re awful,” but since Progressive turned their shit hose on my late sister and my parents, I’ve learned some things that really surprised me.
I’ll try to cleave to the facts. On June 19, 2010, my sister was driving in Baltimore when her car was struck by another car and she was killed. The other driver had run a red light and hit my sister as she crossed the intersection on the green light.
Now, I don’t discount the possibility that Katie was at fault in the accident, but it never really looked that way. The only witness who gave a statement on the day said that Katie had the light, etc. The totality of the evidence left some room for argument, but that will be the case any time there’s a catastrophic car accident that doesn’t happen underneath an array of video cameras.
One indication that the case was pretty open-and-shut was that the other guy’s insurance company looked at the situation and settled with my sister’s estate basically immediately. Now, because the other driver was underinsured, that payment didn’t amount to much, but my sister carried a policy with Progressive against the possibility of an accident with an underinsured driver. So Progressive was now on the hook for the difference between the other guy’s insurance and the value of Katie’s policy.
At which point we learned the first surprising thing about Progressive: Carrying Progressive insurance and getting into an accident does not entitle you to the value of your insurance policy. It just pisses off Progressive’s lawyers. Here I address you, Prospective Progressive Insurance Customer: someday when you have your accident, I promise that there will be enough wiggle room for Progressive’s bottomless stack of in-house attorneys to make a court case out of it and to hammer at that court case until you or your surviving loved ones run out of money.
Which is what Progressive decided to do to my family. In hopes that a jury would hang or decide that the accident was her fault, they refused to pay the policy to my sister’s estate.
Out of a sense of honor, and out of a sense of the cost of my sister’s outstanding student loans, my folks opted to try to go after the money through legal channels. At which point they learned another delightful thing. In Maryland, you may not sue an insurance company when they refuse to fork over your money. Instead, what they had to do was sue the guy who killed my sister, establish his negligence in court, and then leverage that decision to force Progressive to pay the policy.
Now my parents don’t harbor much venom for the guy who killed my sister. It was an accident, and kicking that guy around won’t bring Katie back. But kicking that guy around was the only way to get Progressive to pay. So they filed a civil suit against the other driver in hopes that, rather than going to court, Progressive would settle. Progressive did not. Progressive made a series of offers (never higher than 1/3 the amount they owe) and then let it go to a trial.
At the trial, the guy who killed my sister was defended by Progressive’s legal team.
If you are insured by Progressive, and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order to not pay you your policy.
The trial was a real shitshow for my parents, and I did not love it either. As it happens, the jury did find that the other driver was negligent, which, if justice or decency are priorities for Progressive, will result in them finally honoring Katie’s policy. At this point, I hope you’ll forgive me if I wait for it to actually happen.
Don’t buy insurance from Progressive. Not only will you be paying the salaries of people who put my family through the wringer (really a smaller wringer that Progressive attached to the main wringer of my sister’s death), but also when the chips are down, your money will have bought you nothing but a kick in the face.
Today (August 14) Progressive made an announcement about the case. This is my statement in response.
Photo by Shutterstock
About Matt Fisher
So sorry for your loss. I am a Progressive customer (see the GMPM piece, “Patronizing Flo”), and will be reassessing my insurance choice on Monday morning.
what a shitty company. don’t insurance companies in the states have morals.
I really wish there wasn’t so many distasteful ads encompassing some of these great articles. The popular right now and explore more can be great features for other articles, however, are a bit embarrassing when the only thing they contain are subjects dealing with sexuality. I think sexuality should be addressed more but when the site becomes riddled with the matter it becomes tacky. I would love to share these articles with family and friends however find it hard to do so.
Other people have mentioned that the ads on this site are personalized somehow. I don’t know how. Search history or something. I only see ads for American Apparel and Smart Water.
I’m sorry to hear that, Matt. While my tale isn’t as bad as yours, I’ve learnt from experience not to trust insurance companies. They’re crap, full stop. A couple of years ago I was attacked and nearly raped by a taxi driver while travelling overseas. I managed to get away, but my backpack remained in the cab as it sped off. I tried to claim back the items I lost (iPhone, wallet with cash, sunglasses etc) through the policy I’d taken out. I had a police report and a Statutory Declaration from the Embassy. The insurance company made me jump through such hoops just to get back money (which was way, way less than the limit for such claims) for the items I’d lost. They stalled, they made me provide proof of having owned each item (how do you prove you have a wallet?). But the worst was when they “interviewed” me about the attempted rape. They asked me charming questions like “had I been drinking?” and made me detail the events thoroughly. Yup, they made a sexual assault victim detail the attack days after it happened. It was appalling. They only paid me my money – and not all of what I was owed, might I add – after I had a lawyer friend draft a threatening letter. These companies are absolutely despicable.
Holy crap, dude. I don’t even know what to say. I guess that Progressive spends more money on commercials than they do in taking care of the people who pay that weird Flo chick’s salary.
My heart and prayers go out to you and your family. I am truly sorry for your loss. Progressive Insurance Company is a business. They protect their interests within the confines of the law. Business that don’t do that don’t stay in business. It sounds heartless and inhumane, but the real culprit here is the law. Maryland un/underinsurance law has created this system that resulted in what you witnessed. Could Progressive have simply settled and spared your family the pain you went through? Of course, but you yourself indicated that at first blush liability for the accident was not clear. Therefore, if there was a basis for a defense that would limit Progressive’s liability then Progressive had a duty to its shareholders and/or policy holders to defend against the claim whether or not they were actually defending the tortfeasor (the responsible party). In some states, Insurance carriers that don’t act in good faith in resolving claims with their policy holders may be liable for treble damages (that is triple damages– take the damages and multiply them by 3). I don’t know if Maryland has such law, but if they do I would pursue treble damages. I suspect Maryland doesn’t because the way Progressive behaved doesn’t sound like the worried about such exposure. Again i am sorry. You are expecting human empathy from a corporated entitty. It is not going to happen. May God Bless you and your family.
Which is precisely the problem with how we have developed our systems. “You are expecting human empathy from a corporated entitty. “
Leaving things to the vagaries of human emotion will cause economic chaos. What you refer to is a very slippery slope when you include empathy into the workings of free enterprise. Free enterprise has it drawbacks, but it has it’s effencies as well and it has proven to be the best economic model for society as whole, but it may seem cruel and heartless in certain individual cases. It also can be an engine for good. Many corporate entities generously contribute to good causes to boost their public image and thus maybe their profits. In a communist or socialist system there is very little incentive for individuals or entities to make such contributions. Again, I am sorry for this man’s loss. I would be looking at Maryland’s un/underinsured motorist law to remedy the situation this poor man witnessed, but not trashing the whole system.