According to results from a study conducted by the Nebraska Auto Body Association, 64 percent of respondents said they would generally feel hesitant about filing an auto insurance claim. Eighty-four percent said they might not report a small claim at all, since doing so might increase insurance costs. When asked if insurance adjusters are trained to reduce legitimate claim payouts, 86 percent of respondents agreed.

“This finding should raise some eyebrows particularly by the Nebraska Department of Insurance, the attorney general, and state legislators,” said Norbert Zaenglein, NABA executive director, in a release. “Claimants should not have to be afraid of their insurance companies or worry about whether or not they received a fair claim settlement, but they do.”

Those are certainly high percentages and inflammatory statements. But a closer look at the results mentioned by Zaenglein shows that the survey could be drawing some unfair conclusions. Nowhere in the association's distributed press release is an explanation of how the study was conducted or the type of person targeted for response. In fact, when the survey's results are examined more closely, just 57 people responded to the survey. That's not exactly a scientific basis on which to make such broad, declarative statements. At press time, the association had not responded to a request to clarify how the study was conducted.