Posted on 08/16/2012 11:53:15 PM PDT by SmithL
McLEAN, Va. (AP) — The Progressive Corp. insurance group is defending itself against an onslaught of negative publicity after it tried to avoid paying $75,000 to the family of a client killed in a car crash and tried to blame the wreck on her.
The criticism began Monday with a blog post from 33-year-old Matt Fisher of Brooklyn, whose sister Kaitlynn Fisher had Progressive insurance and was killed in a June 2010 car crash in Baltimore. In order to avoid the payout to Kaitlynn Fisher's family, Progressive interjected itself into a lawsuit the Fisher family filed against the other driver.
Last week, a jury found the other driver negligent, despite Progressive's efforts to persuade the jury otherwise.
Matt Fisher said Thursday that the deluge of online support his family has received is gratifying. The backlash against Progressive was strong enough that the Ohio-based company felt compelled to issue a public statement on the case. The statement denied Progressive was representing the driver who was ultimately found negligent. And it prompted even further backlash because it failed to acknowledge that, as a practical matter, Progressive's lawyer was indeed working in court as a third party to combat the Fisher family's claims.
While Fisher didn't quite anticipate the wave of support he received, he was sure others who learned about the case would be as shocked as he was that his sister's own insurance company was going to such lengths to cast the blame on her for the accident.
The Fisher family's lawyer, Annapolis, Md.-based attorney Allen Cohen, said it is technically true that Progressive was not representing the driver who caused the crash. During the trial, though, Progressive's attorney coordinated with the defense and put on witnesses who tried to undermine Kaitlynn Fisher's case, Cohen said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Progressive’s leader is a big donor to Obama, in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. Believe his name is Lewis.
Let the bastard pay for “tortious interference” in this case.
Progressive’s leader is a big donor to Obama, in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. Believe his name is Lewis.
Let the bastard pay for “tortious interference” in this case.
uh oh. flobot’s not working.
Hence, the word ‘PROGRESSIVE’ as the company’s name. No thanks. I’ve known for a long time the company owner is an obama ass-kisser.
I don’t go with All-State either as they have a lot of fudgepacker poster ads here in the West Hollywood corridor.
State Farm did the exact same thing to me 15 years ago.
Do you care to elaborate? How did it turn out?
>> Progressive’s leader is a big donor to Obama
Exactly the reason why I will never, ever patronize the company.
Stupid not to settle this case, but I stopped reading after $75k.
Progressive’s founder is a big lib!
Why would anyone buy insurance from this moronic woman?
Insurance is often legalized, if not mandatory, theft.
What other business can extract significant sums of money from its clients with the intention of pulling the rug from under their feet during a crisis?
We were out there a couple of years ago checking out the UCLA art school campus and stopped at a BF kinda' in between the main campus, Beverly Hills and that studio ~ roughly where all the street numbers going North start over but the street names don't.
The MS13 gang had everything covered ~ their logo and a threat in Spanish was CARVED into the bottoms of all the toilets ~ INSIDE.
Made you feel safe to be in a place where you knew they weren't all checking out your bottom!
NOT BF, but BK ~ Burger King ~ actually one of the better operations that chain has ~ open 24 hours.
Progressive put up a lot of resistance to paying to fix my car. I’m very aggressive in situations like that and they paid eventually but someone that is timid would have had a much harder time.
If you get hit by someone that has Progressive Insurance, be ready to play tough with them.
In the current Progressive commercial, the Flobot is getting the attention and taking customers from Flo. Flo sidles over the Flobot and pats it on the back. The back pat is actually the extraction of a circuit board that disables the Flobot.
This is the typical union mentality to sabotage that which threatens. To sabotage and destroy company property is ok...... that is the message of the ad and the union mantra.
Progressive Insurance should be run off to France where they appreciate such behavior.
Meanwhile, GEICO is poking fun at wacko lefties. A man with a sweater tied around his shoulders is at a farmers market. He asks the farmer “what is the carbon foot print of the cauliflower?” Before the answer, Gallagher comes running up with a Nancy Pelosi sized gavel and beats up on watermelons. The melons fly all over and are revealed to be green on the outside and red on the inside.
I live in Maryland but don’t understand the case. Did both drivers have Progressive Insurance? Why would Progressive help the other driver?
So a big corporation is trying to hose the little guy.. but since this guy pays tribute to herr Obama, it’s all good.
The other driver had little or no insurance. Kaitlynn Fisher's policy with Progressive included uninsured/under-insured motorist protection, so Progressive was obligated to pay the difference.
The amount they were obligated to pay the Fisher family was a paltry $75,000. The instead tried to get the Fisher family to settle for 1/3. Then they helped represent the other driver in court to try to get the blame for the accident placed on Fisher which would release their obligation to pay.
They lost in court, and hopefully will lose many customers as well.
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