HG--

It's my professional opinion, and I'm pretty qualified considering I personally deal with 100s of insurance claims per year from the agent standpoint, but you are sadly mistaken in your comment above.

Rising insurance rates are not due to "[the] ignorance of the insurance company who wanted to pay little as possible or nothing at all." You stated the correct reason in the sentence before, "people going out to hire an attorney and pressing for a larger settlement." Think about it, if insurance companies always had to pay little or nothing at all, they would actually be able to lower rates. Remember, insurance is strictly a numbers game. The company has to charge more in premiums than it's paying out in claims to make a profit.

With that being said, that's not the only reason. Another is the astounding number of drivers who drive uninsured. We have so many in our state that you are legally required to carry a separate "uninsured motorists" coverage with any auto policy.

I'll refer you to my original statement... just because you have an insurance claim does not mean you hit the lottery.

I know that quite a few here could tell a good story about how they thought hey have been treated unfairly my an insurance company, but after being in the business as long as we have I could tell you some stories from the other side that would make your head spin.

Ben