Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company
Nationwide is a conglomerate of financial and insurance companies that are based out of Columbus, Ohio. They have several regional headquarters including one in San Antonio, Texas. In addition to the regional headquarters, they have local agents and staff counsel in every major city in Texas. They employ over 35,000 people across the United States so they are no mom-and-pop company. Nationwide truly does deal with Nationwide claims.
Who is Allied Car Insurance?
Allied car insurance is a part of the Nationwide Insurance family. Although they maintain a separate website, both websites bear the Nationwide logo, and both state that the two companies are united under one brand. They do, however, maintain their own phone number for claims.
Nationwide Claims Adjusters
Nationwide employs their own claims adjusters to handle car accident claims. It is not uncommon for any insurance company to review your medical bills, submit them to their own “audit,” and offer you less than the actual cost under the banner of “reasonable and necessary” medical care evaluation. If a Nationwide claims adjuster does this in your case, you may have no option but to file a lawsuit to get the full bill paid.
How to Calculate Pain and Suffering in Nationwide Claims
Nationwide does not employ a specific formula or software to calculate pain and suffering in a car wreck case. It often feels like they are not even offering any money for your pain and suffering because they audit the bills down so low at times that the amount they ‘add’ for pain and suffering may not get you back to the original medical bill amounts. Unfortunately, there simply is no such thing as a magic pain and suffering calculator to determine what they may offer you in your case. If you do not believe what they are offering is fair, you can always consult a car wreck lawyer in Houston, TX. to determine whether they feel your case may be worth more to a jury.
Nationwide Class Actions
If you do a little Google research, you will learn that Nationwide has been the subject of several class actions. Of particular note, in 2012, they settled a class action in Delaware that alleged that Nationwide improperly refused payment of medical benefits under PIP insurance after the bills were audited down by a computer. (See Hart v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company.) Computer software audits of medical bills are extremely common by car insurance companies these days and if they are using them on their own clients, rest assured they are likely to be using them on Nationwide claims filed by non-clients. Bill auditing software often results in offers lower than the medical bill balance owed being made on auto insurance claims.
Insurance Staff Counsel in Texas
The ethics of insurance companies having staff lawyers who defend their insureds has been the subject of much debate. However, challenges to this practice have been unsuccessful in stopping it in Texas. The debate centers around whether a lawyer can truly maintain impartiality when he draws a paycheck directly from the insurance company but his duties are to represent the individual client’s (defendant driver’s) best interests even when they are opposed to the insurance company. So long as Texas allows this, you need to be aware of what it means when dealing with companies that use this practice.
Because Nationwide employs staff counsel, they do not have to pay an attorney’s hourly billable rate to defend a typical car accident claim. This means that threats of litigating against them will often fall upon deaf ears since they do not have to pay expensive attorney fees to defend the case. It gives them the power to use stall and delay tactics in paying Nationwide claims to try to get the claimant to settle for less without the insurer incurring a substantial cost.
Hire a Law Firm that Has Gone to Trial Against Nationwide
Nationwide has the size and staff to fight your claim. Furthermore, all insurance companies increase profits by holding down the car injury settlement value of your claim whether by stalling and delaying it, taking trick-question detrimental recorded statements, or frustrating you into not getting the medical care you need. Shouldn’t you have a lawyer on your side, too? Insurance companies know who will take the case to trial if necessary and who will not. Our trial attorneys have been to trial against Nationwide’s staff counsel. At Simmons and Fletcher, P.C., we will fight for you so that you can focus on healing while we seek to make you a recovery. Call Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. today for a free case evaluation: (713) 932-0777. If we take your case, you pay no attorney fees or litigation expenses unless a recovery is made for oyu.