State Farm has expressed outrage after ABC reported the insurer altered engineering reports on hurricane damage in order to deny homeowners' claims.
"State Farm is outraged by a misleading story aired on Friday evening's ABC 20/20 program and by depictions made by two external independent claims adjusters, Cori Rigsby Moran and Kerri Rigsby," the company said.
The story mischaracterizes State Farm's claims handling process in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Bloomington, Ill., company said in a statement.
ABC reported that the engineering reports were altered to avoid paying claims. "How the program characterized State Farm's claims handling is grossly unfair," said Susan Q. Hood, claims vice president, State Farm Insurance.
Ms. Hood said State Farm sought engineering reports in less than 2 percent of the more than 84,700 Mississippi property claims and issued payments on more than 60 percent of those claims in which engineers were involved.
"And in the claims where engineers were involved, we paid far more on homeowner claims than we did on National Flood Insurance Program claims," she said.
In the segment, ABC's Brian Ross discussed documents supplied by the two adjusters with attorney Wayne Drinkwater, who represents State Farm in Mississippi, saying the documents demonstrated that there were conflicting engineering reports and that State Farm denied claims.
State Farm said it has tried to meet with the two women adjusters who appeared in the ABC 20/20 segment to discuss their concerns. They have refused to do so, despite repeated requests.
The women are represented by Mississippi attorney Richard Scruggs, whose firm voiced accusations of altered engineering reports several months ago.
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