- [Justin Ziegler] In this video I'm going to talk about
Progressive accident settlements,
and I'm actually going to give settlement amounts.
You're going to hear about cases of mine,
personal injury cases where I've settled with Progressive
where they've paid me $100,000,
and $50,000 in a couple of other cases,
and many other settlements.
I'm also going to talk about how Uber
is now using Progressive as one of their auto insurers,
and how that's gonna affect claims
of Uber passengers, and others.
(jazzy organ music)
JZ helps, a Florida injury law firm.
I'm injury attorney Justin Ziegler.
The bad news with Progressive is they
typically write small bodily injury liability policies.
That means there often will be limited auto insurance
when Progressive happens to be the insurer in an accident.
That's not where the bad news stops.
Progressive is very, very cheap, or tight
when it comes to paying out personal injury claims.
Particularly in soft-tissue claims
where the sole claim is someone's neck or back being hurt
and there's not really objective findings
of a serious injury.
What this means is for the pain and suffering component
of the claim, Progressive pays
on the lower end of the scale, all things equal.
As opposed to some other auto insurers
like Chubb or Hartford, who happen to have
a reputation for paying better.
So any day of the week I'd prefer having
an insurer like Zurich, or USAA, or Chubb, or Hartford,
in a case, than Progressive.
As of March 1st, 2018, Progressive landed Uber's account
for all auto accidents in Florida
from March 1st, 2018, forward.
Prior, Uber had James River,
who had a better reputation than Progressive.
All in all, the fact that Progressive is now
Uber's insurer in Florida is bad news for Uber riders.
What's the good news with Progressive?
The good news is that overall the adjusters
are pretty decent at answering phone calls.
They regularly check to follow up on your injury treatment,
which is nice, as opposed to dealing with
some other auto insurers where they really
don't follow up with you,
you're the one that has
to initiate communications with them, and overall
some Progressive adjusters can be very friendly.
Progressive has a reputation for showing up
at the injured person's home shortly after an accident,
and offering to settle the case for a cashout of
let's say, $1000, $2000, $3000 or so.
The negative about accepting an offer very shortly
after an auto accident, with Progressive,
is that they're gonna have you sign a release.
And once you've signed the release,
you've waived all of your claims, so.
Also their release language may not include
your right to bring a claim for medical malpractice,
so you may be signing away that claim.
The truck that you can see in this photo
is the truck that caused my client's injury.
It was a rear-end accident.
And my client was driving a work vehicle,
but he had his own personal auto insurance policy
with Progressive.
The trucking company that caused this incident
had what's called the self-insured retention policy
of $250,000, meaning they insured themselves
for the first $250,000 of the claim.
Above that, they had Traveler's insurance.
My client had uninsured motorist with Progressive Insurance.
Now I made an uninsured motorist claim
with Progressive Insurance, even though
my client's claim wasn't worth the $250,000
self retention of the at-fault driver.
However, I argued to Progressive
that because the other driver was self insured,
my client could immediately
make an uninsured motorist claim.
Progressive told me that I was completely wrong.
I filed a Civil Remedy Notice
with the Department of Insurance,
and Progressive ultimately changed their tune,
and paid $10,000.
We claim my client had a labrum tear,
labrum is in the shoulder.
He ultimately had surgery.
We settled the rest of the claim for $200,000
and Traveler's was the insurer who
insured the trucking company whose driver we claimed
caused the accident.
But the moral of the story there is,
just because Progressive tells you
that you are wrong with the law,
or you don't have the claim, they could be dead wrong.
In this case, Progressive told me
my client had no right to bring an uninsured motorist claim
because the other driver had liability insurance
above the self-insured retention.
I filed the Civil Remedy Notice,
and I turned out to be right,
and they overnighted the check for $10,000.
In another case I represented a passenger,
who was in a bad car accident in Miami, Florida,
and Progressive insured the at-fault driver.
My client had injections,
epidural steroid injections to his back.
Progressive at that point only offered $15,000,
and my client got a surgical recommendation
and an appointment for surgery,
and that's when Progressive changed their tune
and paid us the $50,000 policy limit.
We also settled with his uninsured motorist insurer
with another insurer for $100,000,
bringing the total settlement to $150,000.
But it was interesting to know that Progressive
wouldn't offer more than $15,000 after my client
had epidural steroid injections to his lower back.
However once Progressive saw
that he was scheduled for surgery,
they paid the $50,000 limit.
Many other auto insurers would've offered
more than $15,000 at the time that my client
had epidural steroid injections.
But that's just one example as you're gonna see
from many where Progressive is pretty poor
at paying for the pain and suffering component of the claim.
I represented a pedestrian who was in the crosswalk
crossing the street.
She actually was cited for causing the accident
by the police officer.
The at-fault driver had Imperial Casualty Insurance Company,
my client had $100,000 of uninsured motorist insurance
with Progressive.
She had a facial bone fractured in her face,
she had surgery at the hospital.
Progressive paid $100,000 in uninsured motorist insurance.
That's in addition to the $10,000 from
the at-fault driver's insurance.
Now uninsured motorist insurance kicks in
once the at-fault driver either is uninsured,
or doesn't have enough insurance
to pay for the injured person's injuries.
That includes pain and suffering, lost wages,
and out-of-pocket medical bills.
The interesting point to note from that case is,
my client was cited by the officer for being at fault,
so just 'cause the officer says that
the injured person is at fault, they could be dead wrong.
This case, the officer was dead wrong
to the tune of $100,000, plus the $10,000,
bringing it to $110,000.
The other important thing to note is
even though I say Progressive is terrible
at paying personal injury claims,
when you have a big injury, and lower limits,
Progressive typically pays the limits.
This is the photo of a car that my car was driving
when she was in a T-bone accident,
another car made a left-hand turn in front of her.
They crashed.
My client had knee surgery to a plica in her knee.
She also had injections to her lower back.
Progressive insured the at-fault driver.
They paid the $50,000 limit.
We also made a claim against the vehicle's
uninsured motorist insurance for $25,000,
bringing the total claim to $75,000.
But again, even though Progressive is terrible,
my client had knee surgery and injections,
and Progressive paid the $50,000 limit.
In another case with shoulder surgery,
Progressive paid $10,000 and GEICO paid $47,600,
bringing the total settlement to $57,600
for my client's shoulder surgery.
In that case my client claimed that
there was two impacts, thus GEICO potentially had an out,
claiming that liability should have been
on one of the other vehicles in the accident,
and thus their offer was reduced.
This diagram is from a $35,000 settlement
where Progressive insured the driver of the car
who hit a motorcycle rider.
Progressive paid us $10,000,
and State Farm insured the owner of the car.
In Florida, the car owner is liable up to certain limits,
so we were able to secure those $25,000 limits.
My client had a rotator cuff surgery.
Now in the operative report, the operating surgeon said
that the rotator cuff injury was not acute.
That means that the injury was old.
However, in Florida you're entitled
to recover money for an aggravation,
which is a worsening of a pre-existing condition.
In this case, his rotator cuff injury was pre-existing.
In many cases, Progressive is going to hire,
if the case goes into a lawsuit,
or maybe sometimes before,
they're gonna hire a doctor who may say
that your injury is old
such as a herniated disc, or even a rotator cuff tear.
They may say that it existed before the accident,
but you can see here that cases can still
have good value, even if the operating doctor
says that the injury existed before the accident.
My client, unfortunately, did not have
any uninsured motorist insurance.
Had he had uninsured motorist insurance,
the settlement would have likely been
much more than for $35,000.
Another case, my client was driving a pickup truck.
He got hit very hard, the other driver received a ticket.
My client's pickup truck flipped.
And he had mainly soft-tissue injuries,
some loss of sensation to one of his fingers,
but Progressive typically, as in this case,
pays better when the limits are lower
and the damages are higher,
and there's heavy property damage to the vehicle.
Now Progressive isn't alone in that
at least for pre-suit settlements,
many auto insurers pay more money
when there's significant damage to the vehicle.
The thinking goes, a jury is more likely
to believe that someone is injured,
if there's significant damage to the vehicle.
If the vehicle could have been badly damaged,
the person's body could have been badly damaged.
That's the way the insurance companies think.
I'm not saying that I agree with it, but it's out there.
In another case I represented a young woman
in a T-bone accident.
Progressive insured the at-fault driver.
And Progressive paid $10,000,
and another insurance company paid $10,000.
She was young and had a herniated disc in her lower back,
and all things equal the younger you are,
the easier it is to link up a herniated disc to an accident.
Particularly if there's heavy impact.
In another T-bone crash,
Progressive insured the at-fault driver,
they paid $10,000.
Another insurance company paid another $10,000,
bringing the total settlement to $20,000.
Again, the injury was a herniated disc
in the lower back that was claimed.
I settled another case with Progressive for $20,000
where the injured woman claimed
that the herniated disc was pressing,
also known as impinging, on the spinal cord,
and Progressive paid the $20,000 limit.
In another case, Progressive paid $15,000
for soft-tissue injuries of my client.
Soft-tissue injuries being neck and back pain.
Another vehicle was coming in the opposite direction
and made a left-hand turn to try to beat her.
They collided, my client's vehicle rolled over.
Typically roll-over cases are worth more,
because the body moves around more and it's easier
to arguably link up an injury to the crash.
Insurance adjusters are fearful that juries
get more excited for roll-over crashes.
In this case the at-fault driver
was arrested for drunk driving.
Typically if someone's convicted for drunk driving,
that increases the value of the claim against them
because punitive damages can be threatened.
Punitive damages are damages which are in addition
to pain and suffering, medical bills, and lost wages.
The higher the net-worth
of the person who is drunk that causes the accident,
the higher the punitive damages that can be awarded.
In that same case I represented one of the other occupants
and we settled for $14,000.
He also had soft-tissue injuries.
Neither of them had an MRI.
If they had had an MRI, that typically
would've driven up the value of the claim,
because the medical bills,
the out-of-pocket medical bills,
and total bill charges would've been higher.
In addition there would have been the chance
that the MRI would've discovered a herniated disc
which can also increase the full settlement value.
This T-bone accident is an example of why
Progressive is so bad at paying personal injury claims.
The other driver was cited for the accident.
My client was in vehicle number two.
The other driver blew a stop sign.
My client was about 20 years old
at the time of the accident.
Diagnosed with a herniated disc,
also had some out-of-pocket medical bills.
The good insurance companies in this claim,
such as USAA, Hartford, Zurich,
would have paid the $10,000 rather quickly.
Progressive, on the other hand,
wouldn't come up much above $4,000.
We stuck at our $10,000 policy limit demand.
The other driver, like I said earlier on,
only had $10,000 which is very common
with Progressive auto insurance policies.
We ultimately filed a lawsuit against the at-fault driver,
I didn't serve it on him,
so that my attorneys' fees wouldn't increase to my client.
Progressive, upon receiving a copy of the filed lawsuit,
and us filing a Consumer Complaint
with the Department of Insurance,
paid the $10,000, but Progressive can play hardball.
And had we not filed the suit,
and just filed the Consumer Complaint,
I don't know whether that would've been enough
to get Progressive to pay the $10,000.
I settled another claim for a woman
who had a rotator cuff tear.
We settled for Progressive's limits of $10,000,
that was the other driver's limits.
Progressive again didn't pay immediately,
it took some time.
I settled another soft-tissue case
for $10,000 with Progressive.
These are just a few of my many settlements
with Progressive Insurance Company.
Now as bad as Progressive is,
one of the nice things up to this point so far
with Progressive is,
they typically haven't been horrible
about trying to exclude bodily injury coverage by saying
that there was an unlisted driver in the household,
whereas many insurance companies like Windhaven
and United Auto are known for doing that.
So I have to give Progressive some points for that.
Also, now that Progressive is insuring Ubers,
there's gonna be large auto policies in those cases
which is nice.
Now I'm going to turn it over to you.
Do you think Progressive is a good auto insurer,
or do you think they're bad?
Do you think they pay fair money for settlements?
Please leave a comment in the comments section below.
Please subscribe to our channel, like the video.
I'm attorney Justin Ziegler with my office in Coral Gables
which is in Miami-Dade Florida.
Have a wonderful day.