You actually can’t make these items up. Progressive Insurance coverage Firm, one among America’s largest auto insurers, is alleged to have created a scheme that may make ambulance chasers blush – instantly feeding accident sufferer data to a regulation agency for solicitation.
The Weird Details
Image this: You get right into a minor fender bender, dutifully report it to Progressive, and two days later obtain an unsolicited name promising you $10,000 when you enroll with a regulation agency you’ve by no means heard of. That’s precisely what allegedly occurred to Kelly Prepare dinner and his spouse, Dr. Esther Kelley-Prepare dinner after their mother and father had a minor accident of their automotive.
The regulation agency, Kanner & Pintaluga (Ok&P), apparently wasn’t shy about revealing the supply of their lead, telling Dr. Kelley-Prepare dinner instantly that Progressive gave them the contact data below an settlement between the businesses.
The Severe Implications
Whereas the info learn like a rejected authorized comedy script, the implications are not any laughing matter. The alleged scheme probably violates:
- Federal racketeering legal guidelines (RICO)
- The Driver’s Privateness Safety Act
- Texas barratry legal guidelines
- A number of moral guidelines governing lawyer conduct
The felony implications are extreme. As I’ve beforehand written in Public Adjusters and These Straight Soliciting Insurance coverage Claims on Behalf of Attorneys Are Committing a Crime and Can Go to Jail Together with the Attorneys, attorneys and people who have interaction in direct solicitation of claims for attorneys can face lack of their licenses and jail time relying upon the state the place these actions occur.
Why This Issues
This case highlights a rising drawback within the authorized policyholder aspect of the insurance coverage claims trade – the more and more aggressive ways used to amass shoppers by way of probably unlawful means. It undermines the general public belief of those that know higher however are performing out of greed relatively than service first.
For policyholders, this serves as a reminder to be cautious of unsolicited contact after an accident or a loss. For insurance coverage professionals and attorneys, it reinforces that no enterprise benefit is price risking your license or freedom.
The proposed class motion 1 seeks statutory damages of $10,000 per violation, amongst different cures. However past the financial penalties, this case might lastly make clear practices which have lengthy operated at nighttime.
The outdated saying goes that reality is stranger than fiction. On this case, the reality about how some insurance coverage corporations and regulation corporations allegedly function might certainly be stranger – and extra troubling – than any fiction author may think about. Do I believe Progressive executives have permitted a scheme that gives personal data to plaintiff attorneys to make a majority of these solicitations? No. However by some means, the regulation agency or these the regulation agency has engaged to marketplace for it has that personal data.
Keep in mind, when you obtain unsolicited contact after an accident or loss, doc all the pieces. And when you’re an insurance coverage skilled or lawyer, keep distant from any schemes involving the direct solicitation of shoppers. The MMA fiasco can present what can occur. The implications are merely not price it.
Thought For The Day
The regulation is the ground, not the ceiling, of ethics
—Thurgood Marshall
1 Prepare dinner v. Progressive Cas. Ins. Co., No.4:24-cv-4423 (S.D. Tex. [Complaint filed Nov. 11, 2024]).
