Why Allstate Won’t Front Your Rental Car Costs
The text message came from a colleague whose wife had been in a minor accident, no injuries, but her car needed repairs. The other driver was insured by Allstate, and Allstate told her she would have to pay for her own rental car and wait to be reimbursed later. Her question to Jobeth: does it actually work that way when the other driver is at fault?
Unfortunately, when Allstate is the insurer on the other side, yes. Depending on the parts needed and the extent of the damage, repairs can easily take three or four weeks, which can mean outlaying close to $2,000 in rental costs before any reimbursement shows up, with no clear timeline on when that reimbursement actually arrives. Bowers Law does not represent clients directly on property damage claims, but the firm regularly advises, guides, and helps facilitate that side of a case. This particular pattern comes up often enough that Jobeth recognized the insurer before his colleague even said the name.
That is what dealing with Allstate looks like from the property damage side alone.
Local Body Shops Say the Same Thing About Allstate
It is not just claimants who run into friction with Allstate. Ask a local independent body shop which major insurance company is the worst to deal with, and Allstate’s name comes up there too. The hoops shops have to jump through to get paid for repairs, including how they have to upload initial damage photos and move through Allstate’s claims system, have struck the shops Jobeth has talked to as needlessly quirky. It seems nobody who works with Allstate from the repair side particularly likes working with them.
How Allstate Handles Injury Claims, Big and Small
On the injury side, Jobeth has been practicing for decades, and among the large, for-profit insurance carriers, Allstate has consistently ranked at or near the top of the list for how poorly it pays out on claims. Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, the state’s insurer of last resort, is generally bad too, but among the major for-profit companies, Allstate stands out.
On smaller, more minor cases, where a client might go to the ER, see a primary care doctor, and spend a couple of months in physical therapy before recovering or substantially improving, Jobeth often sees Allstate come in with offers that are lower than the client’s medical bills. That is completely unacceptable, and it is usually an automatic trigger for a conversation with the client about filing suit right away, because Allstate is not going to act in good faith on its own.
On the larger, more serious cases, Allstate tends to hold out until the value of a claim far exceeds the case, typically needing to be worth roughly double the policy or claim limits, before it will agree to pay. Across both ends of the spectrum, Allstate is among the most difficult insurers Jobeth deals with.
Why Allstate Claims Often Go All the Way to Trial
With most insurance companies, filing a lawsuit and getting the other side served tends to change the tone of negotiations. Once a company realizes a client has, in effect, called its bluff, the phone starts ringing with a real offer. Allstate is different. In Jobeth’s experience, once a case is in litigation, Allstate will make the firm take it all the way to a verdict most of the time. He had one case a couple of years ago that broke that pattern, but it is the exception.
For the client, that means time, even on smaller cases. A district court trial track in Maryland typically runs four to five months, depending in part on how quickly the other driver can be served. Other insurers behave differently: with State Farm, for instance, a circuit court case often will not move into real negotiation until the settlement conference, something Bowers Law prepares its clients for in advance. With Allstate, the one time in the last five or six years that a case resolved early was also at that settlement conference stage, so there is little reason to expect an early break in a case against them.
Allstate also does not appear to treat smaller district court cases, where a claim is capped at $30,000, any differently from larger ones. The firm’s attorneys will drive to Cecil County’s district court in Elkton and try even modest cases rather than settle, and in circuit court they tend to fight just as hard, again unless a case is catastrophic and clearly worth close to double the policy limits.
Two Ways an Allstate Policy Can Work Against You
Jobeth points to two specific ways that choosing Allstate as your own insurance company could work against you.
Jobeth talks often about carrying enough underinsured motorist coverage so that if you are seriously injured by a driver who does not have enough insurance of their own, your own coverage steps in to fill the gap. If Allstate is your insurer, it will handle that underinsured motorist portion of your claim the same combative way it handles a claim against an at-fault driver, which can mean a long, unnecessarily drawn-out fight for coverage you are paying for and are entitled to.
Second, if you cause an accident and you are insured by Allstate, and the injured driver hires an attorney who knows what they are doing, there is a good chance you will end up served with a lawsuit at some point. You will not have to pay that verdict out of pocket, since Allstate will cover it, but you will likely be dragged through a longer process than you would with an insurer that settles more claims before trial.
Your Insurance Policy Sucks: The New Edition Is Almost Here
The new edition of Jobeth’s book, Your Insurance Policy Sucks, is very close to release. If you have already submitted your policy for one of Jobeth’s free reviews through marylandinsurancebook.com, a copy will be mailed to you automatically once it is published. There is nothing further you need to do. The book will also be available for purchase on Amazon, but anyone who has had a policy review will not need to buy it.
Get a Free Auto Insurance Policy Review
Jobeth offers a completely free review of any Maryland driver’s auto insurance policy at marylandinsurancebook.com, no cost and no obligation. If you want to catch up on the earlier episode about Progressive, or browse the growing library of guidance on auto insurance policies, head to bowerslawmd.com, click podcast at the top, and scroll down. Have a topic you would like covered on a future episode? Email info@bowerslawmd.com and let Jobeth know it is for the podcast.
Contact Our Personal Injury Lawyers Today
If Allstate is dragging out your rental reimbursement, lowballing your injury claim, or forcing your case toward trial, Bowers Law can help you push back and fight for what you’re owed.
Call us today or visit our office at 103 Court House Plaza, Elkton, MD 21921, now located right next door to the Cecil County Circuit Courthouse. No upfront fees and no payment until we recover money for you.
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