FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

At a time when insurance companies are seeking legislative concessions in many states, it may be instructive to review how one former insurance company lawyer exposed alleged corporate policies that, if true, would constitute fraudulent criminal behavior and bad faith. Amy Girod Zuniga, a former member of State Farm’s litigation team, gave a deposition in support of a lawsuit filed by Roderick and Krista Taylor in 1995. She testified that State Farm agents and employees forged customer signatures to exclude earthquake coverage from policies after the earthquake. She testified that State Farm was aware of the pattern of forgeries because the company paid claims whenever the forgery could be exposed and proven by the Insured."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES:

  "In fact, American Home, which provides Errors and Omissions coverage for State Farm’s agents, refused to accept the tender in State Farm agents’ forgery cases as American Home stated that State Farm had ample notice of conduct of this type by its agents and that State Farm had taken no meaningful steps to correct the problem. Therefore, American Home’s position was that State Farm had ratified and authorized the agents’ conduct so that State Farm was responsible for claims arising out of this type of conduct. EDITOR'S NOTE: State Farm attempted to have Zuniga’s deposition sealed. They argued that there was strategic information which should not be disseminated to the public. The Second District Court of Appeals in California ruled that it could be made public State Farm v. Superior Court (Taylor), no.B106120(Cal.Ct.App. filed Apr. 22, 1997).

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "INCRIMINATING AFFIDAVITS FILED BY A STATE FARM FORMER LITIGATION TEAM MEMBER

A former State Farm employee, Amy Girod Zuniga, who was a former member of State Farm’s litigation team, filed two affidavits in which not only allegations of blatant bad faith were made but also outright criminal conduct by high-ranking State Farm officials. Just several brief highlights of her affidavits follow:"

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES:

"A. She indicated that certain court documents filed by State Farm were false.


B. She was instructed by her supervisor never to use the word 'forgery' in connection with the forgery of signatures of State Farm’s Insureds by State Farm agents and agency employees. The word 'forgery' was referred to as the 'F word' by personnel in her unit."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES:

"C. She stated that a John Bishop, one of State Farm’s senior executives at corporate headquarters, instructed that State Farm’s witnesses should never admit that forgeries occurred, and if compelled to do so by Court Order, that they would develop a story in which they would try to make this practice look like a 'service.' (The forgeries were to void claims not to provide a service.)


D. That instead of complying with requests for discovery by various plaintiffs, a carefully created 'packet' from which many documents were removed was prepared. One of the items removed was the index. Their tactic was to give plaintiffs something containing no damaging information but which was voluminous enough to distract their attorneys."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES:

 "E. Prior to Ms. Zuniga’s deposition, she was specifically instructed by her supervisor, Vanessa Gudeij, that under no circumstances was she to 'give up' the name of David Tannenbaum to plaintiff’s counsel. Mr. Tannenbaum had told her that identical, screened packets of discovery documents referred to above were to be produced in all earthquake cases in response to discovery requests, regardless of the specifics of the particular facts of the case."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES:


"F. She was given 'talking points,' a memorandum prepared by her supervisor, which contained untrue statements in which she was to memorize and give as her answers in the deposition.


G. She also stated in her affidavit that the written script referred to above was typical of the practices and procedures she observed at the company in connection with the preparation of company witnesses for deposition. She, herself, as part of her duties, participated in the preparation of many witnesses for deposition."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "H. Professional witness consultants were hired to prepare State Farm employees for giving testimonies at depositions and at trials. Witnesses were taught to be very evasive and to try not to provide any relevant information. One example of this training was that when asked, 'Where is your car parked right now?' if they responded by stating where they had parked their car, they were told that their answer was wrong. They were told that such an answer was incorrect because it had assumed that the car had not been stolen or towed away, and thus the only correct answer was, 'I do not know.' T"

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "The witnesses were taught other tactics such as not looking the questioner directly in the eye, since eye contact would tend to facilitate meaningful communication and the giving of information. Witnesses were taught not to answer a question with a 'yes' or a 'no' to minimize the likelihood of giving a truly responsive answer. A yes or no answer does not give 'wiggle room' to change the answer at a later time. Witnesses were taught to pretend not to understand the initial deposition admonition, in order to throw off the Insured’s attorney. The entire point of this training was to make it as difficult as possible for the Insured’s attorney to learn any meaningful information about the company, its practices, or the Insured's claim."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "I. At trial, the company’s witness’s tactics are different. They are trained to act completely different for the jury than they do at deposition. Witnesses were trained to appear helpful and polite, and to drop the evasive tactics used to keep information from being disclosed at deposition. She gave examples of the company 'purging' their files and knowingly producing incomplete files when they were legally bound to produce the complete file."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "J. She also explained a company policy in which 'low damager' claims were not to be settled but rather fully litigated, and every effort was to be made to make it financially unfeasible for the Insured to obtain any benefits regardless of whether any liability was clear or not. State Farm’s attorneys were instructed to conduct formal discovery, obtain records via subpoena instead of authorization forms, and to take depositions of the claimant or Insured, even after the Insured had voluntarily given a recorded statement. They were also forced to undergo so-called IME’s performed by doctors the company was confident would give reports unfavorable to the claimant/insured. This policy was to be 'broadcast' to all plaintiffs’ attorneys’ offices she dealt with."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "The stated goal and purpose of that policy was to make it unprofitable and too expensive and costly for plaintiffs’ attorneys to handle those types of cases, even those in which liability was clear. It was explained to her that the results of the policy were intended to be a short-term increase in legal fees for the company but a significant long-term decrease in benefits payments once the plaintiffs’ bar became aware that handling those cases would be too costly and unprofitable. She not only observed but was, in fact, told at State Farm that said policy was extremely effective."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "K. She told of one incident in which State Farm’s conduct was so destructive, that it contributed to the deterioration of the plaintiff’s health which resulted in suicide attempts and psychiatric hospitalizations during 1995."

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES

FORMER STATE FARM EMPLOYEE TESTIFIES THAT STATE FARM AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES REGULARLY FORGE CUSTOMER SIGNATURES: "NOTE: State Farm is a company which probably more than any other company tries to convince insurance departments, police authorities, legislatures, judges, and juries that they are the ones who are victims of frauds. While that is certainly true some of the time, their methods and tactics must be exposed to the Insurance departments, police authorities, and to judges and juries, likewise. See the next six news reports for other examples."