Don’t Settle For the Insurance Company’s First Offer: Placing Profits Over Protecting Policyholders
By David S. Farber, The Farber Law Firm
January 19, 2012
Are you getting all you should from your insurance claims? Don’t settle for low-ball offers from your insurance company. You have another option.
An important report in the Huffington Post outlines how insurance companies have dramatically increased their profits by employing a model for handling claims popularized in the mid-1990s, often to the detriment of the policyholder.
CNN’s 360 With Anderson Cooper recently presented an in-depth report about questionable insurance practices at the nation’s two largest auto carriers – Allstate and State Farm. The story showed that many times consumers with liability claims covered by insurance medical claims were challenged in court and given a fraction of what they needed to cover expenses (view video at http://bit.ly/vZR4Cm).
McKinsey & Company, a global management-consulting firm, is credited for starting the trend when it presented Allstate and others with a new system for increasing profits in the early 1990s. The new computer-driven method for adjusting claims would intentionally produce low offers to claimants, with the expectation that most would be accepted. Those that weren’t would be significantly delayed and likely lead to lengthy and costly litigation.
McKinsey reportedly presented its plan to Allstate via 12,500 PowerPoint slides, one of which summarized the impact of the new system: "Improving Allstate's casualty economics will have a negative economic impact on some medical providers, plaintiff attorneys, and claimants. ... Allstate gains -- others must lose."
The proof was in the pudding. Allstate doubled its earnings in the 1990s, characterized as a “stunning increase” that reduced paid claims to around 30 percent below the market cost.
The Huffington Post report asserts that Allstate is “the best-known use of the McKinsey model” while it also sits at the top of the American Association of Justice’s Ten Worst Insurance Companies in America list. But they are far from alone. A management consultant and former business professor who has studied the insurance industry's evolution into a profit-driven machine told the Post that “the companies that take in 70 percent of total insurance profits in the United States now abuse their obligations to their policyholder.”
Attorney David J. Berardinelli, author of the book that details Allstate’s claims strategies, “From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves,” and I appeared simultaneously as policyholder advocates on a talk radio show where we discussed the treatment of policyholders by the insurance industry and provided practical advice to those who have suffered an insurance loss.
Don’t be a victim of this abuse. We can help. The Farber Law Firm takes care of the hassle of dealing with insurance companies, on your behalf. In order to obtain the benefit of your hard-earned premium, you can access our considerable experience litigating against insurance companies to meet their obligations.
For our Public Adjuster allies who fight tirelessly on behalf of policyholders, The Farber Law Firm is adept at working with you in your continued fight against misbehaving insurance companies on behalf of our mutual clients.
If you, a client, friend, or colleague had a property loss that was either denied by an insurance company or you were not fully compensated to cover the damages, The Farber Law Firm can help you.
The Farber Law Firm handles a wide range of commercial and residential Insurance Disputes including:
- Collapse
- Pipe Break
- Fire
- Flood
- Lightening
- Hurricane
- Mold
- Natural Disaster
- Roof Leak
- Sinkhole
- Vandalism
- Theft
- Water Leak
- Windstorm
- Hail
- Business Interruption
Berardinelli’s book, which Allstate attempted to prevent from being published, is available on amazon.com: http://amzn.to/y1fARp
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.XXX Domain Names, Are You Protected?
By: David S. Farber
December 22, 2011
On December 9, 2011, the Associated Press' reporter, Patrick Condon, reported that the University of Kansas is buying up domain names with the .XXX suffix to prevent the pornography industry from exploiting certain potentially related domain names; two the University now owns are www.KUgirls.xxx and www.KUnurses.xxx. According to Mr. Condon, the University of Kansas has spent $3,000.00 buying up .XXX domain names and is not alone with Indiana University spending $2,200 to buy www.hoosiers.xxx. With a Florida connection, ICM Registry of Palm Beach, Fla is the exclusive manager of .XXX names and sells them through middleman companies like GoDaddy for an average cost of $100 a year per domain name. ICM's database reveals that Nike.xxx, Pepsi.xxx, and Target.xxx have also been purchased. http://tinyurl.com/cnyqllw As the University of Kansas and Indiana University have shown by their purchase of these domain names, .XXX cannot be ignored when properly considering and planning your intellectual property strategy.
Notably, the Domain Name System (DNS) helps internet users find their way around the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address - like a telephone number - called an "IP address" (IP stands for "Internet Protocol"). IP Addresses are hard to remember. So, the DNS makes using the Internet easier by allowing a familiar string of letters (the "domain name") to be used instead of the arcane, hard-to-remember, IP address. So instead of typing 207.151.159.3, you can type www.internic.net. - a "mnemonic" device. Every domain name around the world ends with a top-level domain (TLD); these are the 2 or more letters that come after the dot. There are currently two types of TLDs: generic top-level domain (gTLDs) such as .COM, .MOBI, .INFO, and .XXX and country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) such as .uk, .br, and .cn. A gTLD or a ccTLD is managed by a registry operator, like ICM, who maintains the registry database. There are roughly two dozen gTLDs now, but soon, there could be hundreds.
With the launch of the new top level domain .XXX several months ago, The Farber Law Firm proactively advised its clients to use ICM's "blocking program" to block their related brands from registration. The "blocking program" enabled brand owners from outside the adult entertainment industry to pay a one-time fee to block the registration of strings matching their existing trademarks. Those who took advantage of the block received 10 years of protection - the agreed upon time that ICM Registry is responsible for maintaining the extension. While the blocking program has now expired, it is not too late to register, if available, your valuable brand name with the suffix .XXX to prevent others from doing the same. In fact, www.buy.xxx is presently running television commercials (which are comical and worth watching at www.buy.xxx) trying to convince brand owners to purchase .XXX domains before someone else does. This may be good advice from an intellectual property planning standpoint as legitimate brand owners will be forced to share the internet with their brand/domain names which may contain content which is potentially illicit; thereby, potentially tarnishing the brand owners' image, goodwill, reputation and perceived value. As the University of Kansas and Indiana University have shown, perhaps the best offensive is a great defense by proactively buying .XXX domains.
If brand owners don't register their brands before someone else does, they may be forced, if they perceive harm in the future, to engage in a domain name dispute litigation. This is, of course, more costly then registering their brand with the .XXX suffix. If infringers register brand owners’ domain names with .XXX, dilution of the brand owners’ valid name/trademark(s) may likely result or at very least, serve as a basis for another opposing your intellectual property to argue dilution. If your domain has been taken and you would like to discuss your legal options, contact The Farber Law Firm as we have assisted brand owners in maintaining and protecting their legal rights through domain name dispute litigation. At The Farber Law Firm we understand the difficulty and cost posed by cybersquatting and infringers seeking to capitalize on our clients' valuable brands. Contact The Farber Law Firm at 305-774-0134 or toll-free at 888-774-0134 today to discuss how we can assist you in planning, prosecuting and/or defending your intellectual property legal rights.
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Intellectual Property, No Cry. . . . The Bob Marley Intellectual Property Dispute
By David S. Farber
December 13, 2011
The Associated Press' Legal Affairs Writer, Curt Anderson, reported on December 8, 2011 that a Bahamian Company representing Bob Marley's widow, Rita and nine of his children, filed a lawsuit in Miami Federal Court seeking to prevent Bob Marley's half brother from using his legendary brother's name and image, without official authorization to promote an annual Miami music festival and other ventures. The Federal lawsuit seeks to prevent Marley's half-brother, Richard Booker, from using Marley's name, image, lyrics and other intellectual property unless he reaches a licensing agreement to do so with the family company, Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Ltd. To read Mr. Anderson’s article in full, click here http://preview.tinyurl.com/73j3gr5
 While Bob Marley, a beloved and talented musician, has been deceased since 1981, his commercial value continues to escalate. His name, likeness, and intellectual property, as demonstrated by the above family legal dispute, has been and continues to be a source of heated debate and a round table topic for intellectual property practitioners. Often times famous individuals will expire far too early and those with actual valid claims and those seeking to profit can and sometimes do seek to capitalize on the deceased famous person's very valuable commodity, his/her intellectual property. This is not, however, solely confined to the recently departed, but is very much a concern for the famous and not so famous individuals who have passed many years prior whose families/companies are now faced with attempting to prevent infringement.
With the advent and popularity of the internet, a wide range of commercial enterprises to intellectual property owners and infringers exist and without proper intellectual property planning, prosecution and/or defense, legal rights to this valuable commercial property may or could be in jeopardy. The best and easiest example of the foregoing are infringers registering famous individuals names (or similar, but confusing names) as domain names and selling products on that website perpetrating or implying that the products sold are backed by the famous person or the company representing that individual.
At The Farber Law Firm we have assisted companies in maintaining and protecting their legal rights associated with the intellectual property of deceased famous individuals. We understand the difficulty posed by infighting amongst family members and have created licensing agreements between those who rightfully own the intellectual property and those seeking to use it in a manner or method which is approved by the licensor. While the intellectual property of famous individuals are extremely commercially profitable, we at The Farber Law Firm recognize the commercial value of intellectual property both on a small and large scale and work tirelessly to assist our clients globally in protecting their most invested-in valuable commercial commodity, the good name/will/value created by their intellectual property. Contact The Farber Law Firm at 305-774-0134 or toll-free at 888-774-0134 to discuss how we can assist you in planning, prosecuting and/or defending your intellectual property legal rights. (photo courtesy: Wikipedia)
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