After Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi, its victims had to deal with bad faith actions by insurance companies trying to minimize losses by wrongly denying claims.  Owners of homes with their roofs blown off were told their homes were flooded and had their claims denied.  People with flood insurance were told their damage was caused by wind.  Insurance companies did everything to keep from paying legitimate claims.

In Texas, victims of Hurricane Ike will soon be dealing with the same problems.  Their claims will be denied and then if they decide to sue, the insurance companies will litigate them to death.  According to a recent piece in the Houston Chronicle, “Aggressive litigation and stalling make pursuing small claims prohibitively expensive for consumers — the lawsuit itself can easily cost more than the value of the actual claim. While a lawsuit to force payment of a wrongfully denied claim drags on, the plaintiff must accept the financial consequences. The insurance company loses comparatively little, collecting premiums long after a claim is denied, with interest accruing every day during litigation.”

And what happens if a consumer should happen to win their case?  As we’ve told you before, the insurance companies will take it all the way to the Texas Supreme Court where they rule against customers 87% of the time.

Today is the first day of early voting and the first day you to vote against the status quo and for real insurance reform and for a balanced court system.