Facts About Insurance Claims

Insurance company advertising and media releases have tried to convince the public that there is a "litigation crisis" and "runaway juries" are consistently handing out huge, illogical verdicts. The advertising has been talking about an "insurance crisis."

There have been two main purposes behind this; to make higher premiums "understandable" to the public and to convince the public (when they are on a jury) to not award verdicts to injured people.

Illogical runaway verdicts are rare, but they certainly get high publicity when they do occur. Illogical verdicts against injured people happen a lot more often, but they get no publicity. See the Colorado Jury Verdict Reporter at your library or at my office for proof of this. Although juries can, on occasion, render unusual verdicts, the system works well overall. But insurance companies should not be allowed to get away with false cries of "litigation crisis" and "insurance crisis" while making increasing profits. The facts show these cries are misleading.

Insurance corporations want more of our money. Why?

Look at the annual net profits of the largest insurance corporations:

State Farm	$2.4 Billion
Allstate	$2.2 Billion
Farmers	$320 Million

The net worth of these three insurance corporations (reflecting in part accumulated profit) is enormous.

State Farm	$74.0 Billion
Allstate	$34.2 Billion
Farmers	$12.1 Million
Total	$120.3 Billion

The claim of a litigation crisis is wrong.

FACT:	Lawsuits are rarely filed from accidents
FACT:	Less than 15% of all auto accidents involve anyone getting hurt. Yet insurance corporations want us to believe too many lawsuits are still the problem.
FACT:	Lawsuits from auto accidents are actually decreasing; by more than 25% over the last ten years. This has happened while Colorado population has increased tremendously. Have your premiums decreased significantly over the last 10 years? Why not?
FACT:	Insurance corporations raised our premiums almost 30% over the last 5 years while insurance payouts have increased only 1%. (1996 data) In Colorado we should question why insurance corporations with net assets over $120 billion want more of our money...
FACT:	Profit for a Colorado policy is 300% higher than some surrounding states. The bottom line: The facts show there is neither a litigation nor an insurance crisis. Insurance corporations want more of our money for more profits.