Selective insurance: Auto Accident

Claims and Settlements

      Selective Insurance is a regional insurance company that sells, among other things, both personal and commercial car insurance.   At last count, they served 22 states, including Maryland.   Car insurance customers, according to a JD Power study, seem largely happy with Selective Insurance.  In accident claims dealing with Selective, the results are more mixed.

Last year, Selective Insurance was fined $10,000 by the Maryland Insurance Administration for failing to include a fraud disclosure on Selective’s applications for insurance and on its claim forms.  But it is hard to make much of this, it is just a lack of technical compliance of a new Maryland law.

Selective Insurance tends to write larger than average insurance polices.  Accordingly, there is likely to be more coverage when Selective Insurance is the defendant than with the average insurance company in Maryland.

How Does Selective Insurance Value Injury Claims for Settlement Purposes?

        Selective Insurance has traditionally used a computer based program, Colossus, to assist in determining the value of insurance claims. Selective evaluates the accident victim’s medical records and bills and decides how much treatment it thinks was necessary for the accident and what the fair value is of (1) the medical treatment, (2) past or future wage loss and (3) the victim’s pain and suffering.   Selective Insurance, like most insurance companies, typically undervalues all of these categories before a lawsuit is filed.

Who Are the Lawyers Who Defend Lawsuits Against Selective Insurance?

        Among the major Maryland car insurers, Selective Insurance is the only one that has eschewed the modern paradigm of having in-house counsel (at least in Maryland).  Instead of having attorneys that are Selective Insurance employees defend accident lawsuits brought against its insureds, Selective Insurance hires a Maryland lawyer in each case to defend individual accident claims.  Whatever the basis for this economic decision, Selective Insurance certainly spends more money defending individual accident claims than the other major insurance companies in Maryland.

Is Selective Insurance a Good Insurance Company to Bring a Claim Against?

        Selective Insurance is hard to label with respect to quality of settlement offers in car accident cases.   Our car accident lawyers’ experience with Selective Insurance settlement offers is that they run the gambit from ridiculous to reasonable.   We do think that the gap between fair and where Selective is narrows as the lawsuit process unfolds. 

Our Lawyers Can Help You With Your Accident Claim Against Selective Insurance

         If you have been seriously injured in a car accident in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Washington D.C., Minnesota, Pennsylvania, or Georgia where the at-fault driver is insured by Selective Insurance, or if you are filing an uninsured motorist claim against Selective Insurance, and you have a question about your claim or wish to file a lawsuit, call us at 800-553-8082 or get a free on-line Selective Insurance claim evaluation and consultation.