Missouri Insurance Claims Lawyer: State Farm's Profit Not Excessive
MISSOURI PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER
Do I consider State Farm’s yearly profit excessive? No. Well, shouldn't I, am I not an attorney fighting for the little guy? In 2006 their reported profits were $5.6 BILLION!!! Does that change my mind? Nope.
And why should I, or anyone else for that matter, care about their profits? I care about what aspects of this whole circus I can control. Should I care about the manner in which they receive their profits, the manner in which they do business, how fairly they treat claims? ABSOLUTELY!! But if their manner is fair, if they treat claims properly, then I applaud their profit. But, what is "the rest of the story?" Our judicial system allows for good attorneys to get good results.
Missouri plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers and many from around the U.S. complain about State Farm’s profits surging to $5.6 billion in 2006 — up from $3.2 billion in 2005. State Farm’s CEO received a $5.26 million dollar pay raise last year and is now earning $11.66 million. 
Implicit in complaints from plaintiff's lawyers is the idea that State Farm’s low-ball offers and hardball tactics are the reason why their profits are so high and their CEO is overpaid.
I think it is misplaced to expend energy complaining about hardball tactics of the insurance industry. Other than cases were insurance companies are dealing with their own insured, insurance companies should be trying to do whatever they ethically can to decrease payouts. Conversely, it is the job of personal injury and insurance claims attorneys job to do the opposite. As attorneys for the injured are we simply hoping for fair offers? Are we not are trying to get as much as we possibly can for our clients? Are we not ethically required to do so?
We have an adversarial judicial and settlement system that has been in place for a few hundred years and I think it works. It is clearly not a perfect system, it is just the best system and I understand that the system has its own degree of cyclical change.
State Farm and other insurance companies are going to play tough and I would suggest that they have a moral obligation to be good stewards of their money. However, if Missouri personal injury lawyers hold up their end of the bargain and fight, fight, fight, the system will work just fine.
