Hood expressed satisfaction with the results, but peppered his comments with thinly veiled jabs at State Farm, despite obtaining the results he sought.

"Under the terms of our original settlement, which required supervision of the federal district court, a lot more money would have been paid out because the panel of arbiters would have been chosen evenly by the plaintiffs and State Farm," said Hood. "Under the Mississippi Insurance Department reevaluation program, there were no arbiters. When we entered into the original agreement, our Office estimated that the arbiters would make State Farm pay between the minimum of $50 million and $400 million. Nevertheless, the additional $74 million paid by State Farm pursuant to the Mississippi Department of Insurance reevaluation program apparently meets the minimum payments required under our original state court settlement agreement."

According to a release from Hood's office, the settlement agreement includes additional benefits for the remaining slab/pier-only policyholders, who were eligible to have their claims reevaluated but have not done so. State Farm has agreed to send those 148 policyholders new notices that will inform them on how they can still participate in the reevaluation process, if the policyholder submits a reevaluation form by Aug. 29, 2008. In accordance with the Attorney General's original agreement with State Farm, these offers are guaranteed to total no less than 50 percent of Coverage A limits, subject to policy limits and prior payments.

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