About two years ago, my girlfriend Dawn was rear-ended on her way to work. Her car was totaled and she suffered serious whiplash. The driver of the truck that hit her was insured by FARMERS insurance. In the two years since the accident, she has spent approximately five thousand dollars on x-rays, doctor's visits, physical therapy, etc. Naturally, being an insurance company, Farmers did not want to pay for any Dawn's medical bills. So we were forced to get a lawyer and sue the insurance company. We sued them for thirty thousand dollars (for future medical bills), and an arbitration was held.
An arbitration is just like going to court, except that there is no jury, and instead of a judge, another lawyer oversees the case. We won the arbitration, but the insurance company only offered us seventeen thousand (thirty percent of which would go to our lawyer), which is basically nothing. So we were forced to take them to court.
NOW, let me explain a little something about Oregon law here: Once in court, it was illegal for us to say that we were suing Farmers insurance, or ever even mention the insurance company. We had to say that we were suing the guy that hit Dawn.
Well, to make a long story short, the jury found that the guy that hit Dawn from behind was not at fault for the accident (even though it says right in the Driver's Ed. Handbook that you are AUTOMATICALLY responsible for hitting ANYTHING in front of your car).
So basically what this means is that Farmers insurance company got off scot-free, and never had to pay one penny for the accident.
I find this completely UNACCEPTABLE! We each pay insurance companies thousands of dollars a year so that if we get in an accident, the insurance company will pay for any of the damages (be it to property or people). Then, when we finally do get in an accident, the insurance company finds a way not to pay.
Well, NOT THIS TIME! This time I plan to see to it that Farmers insurance pays. The law has already decided that they don't have to pay Dawn directly. This leaves me with little choice but to take the money from them indirectly. And here is how I plan to do it...
I plan to convince as many people as I can who have Farmers insurance to change their insurance company.
I estimate that the average person pays about $100.00 per month on auto insurance; that's about $1,200.00 per year.
If I can convince JUST 25 people to switch from Farmers to some other insurance company, I will have taken approximate $30,000.00 from Farmers (that's the original amount of money we asked from them).
SO...
If any of you have Farmers insurance, Please think about changing it.
(Chances are, if you ever get in an accident, they are going to end up weaseling out of paying you too!)
I HAVE PROVIDED A FEW LINKS ON THE LEFT TO HELP YOU GET STARTED.
If any of you know someone who uses Farmers insurance, please take a few moments to try and convince him or her to change.
If you convince anyone to change insurance carriers, please send me their names or have them email me: dwyerandy@hotmail.com
I plan to write up this list of names and send Farmers a little note telling them that we took the thirty thousand from them anyway, except now it is ANNUALLY instead of just once like it would have been had they just done what they are there for. It is going to feel so good to tell them "SEE, YOU SHOULD OF JUST PAID US IN THE FIRST PLACE."
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this and for your future efforts to humble this insurance company.
Please, if you come across someone who is insured by these bastards, tell them "it's time to LOSE THE FARM!"
