Open Letter To State Farm

Claim Number: XXYYZZ
Date of incident: 02/XX/12
Team: 5X

1. Is it inappropriate / illegal for State Farm to assign liability in a claim with a no investigation into proportion of fault or any consideration to mitigating factors, given the state-adopted comparative negligence scheme of liability?

Examples of such activity include:
1) Not accepting any information about the incident, besides a verbal statement (diagrams, photographs)
2) Pre-determination of liability based on a generalized situation rather a subjective review of the facts of the case
3) Paying out the liability claim before an appeal of the decision is permitted

2. Is it improper / unfair / illegal for State Farm to institute time-consuming and biased policies and protocols for claim-handling, leaving policy-holder with no recourse besides appealing an adverse decision of liability?

3. Is it unfair / unreasonable / illegal for State Farm to deny policy holder access to records relating to State Farm's investigation and handling of the claim, such as photographs of the estimator?

4. Can State Farm abuse consumer privacy protection by refusing to:
- provide a basic cost-analysis of the repair estimation
- explain the process of estimation
- disclose general information such as standardized rates, pre-negotiated with the repair facility
- conduct more than one repair estimation
- provide local averages for similar repairs?

5. Is it improper / suspect / illegal for State Farm to engage in unscrupulous and exclusionary methods of claim-handling, given the bias inherent in the process: a repair estimate over the policy's deductible results in an increase in subsequent premiums paid by the policy-holder?

Examples of such activity include:
1) Concealing records, and refusing to provide information
2) Insufficient and unsatisfactory investigatory practices
3) Complete control and autonomy over all decisions related to settling the claim
4) Little to no follow/up or notification to keep policy-holder updated of developments (unless specifically requested)
5) Instituting time-consuming and laborious protocols of appeal
6) Generally refusing to cooperate with the policy-holder

6. In the event that a policy-holder is dissatisfied with State Farm's handling of a claim, what are the recourses available, with respect to:
1) The claim
2) State Farm's role in handling the claim?

7. Is it an acceptable costumer service practice, for a State Farm "Team Member" of a "team" assigned to investigating a claim, to be inconsiderate and argumentative and treat the policy-holder as an adversary, rather than a client?"

-x-

(End of Message - Will post a reply if I receive one)