Rather than pay 100k life insurance policy, Progressive defends woman’s killer
By Lou Colagiovanni (Examiner.com, 8/14/2012)
Baltimore resident Kaitlynn Fisher, 24, was involved in an automobile accident which stole her life on June 19, 2010. She was struck at an intersection by Ronald Kevin Hope III, who ran a red light. Hope had minimal insurance, but Fisher’s policy had a special clause which called for her insurer, Progressive Insurance, to cover the difference if and when she was involved in an accident with someone who was under insured. Rather than pay Fisher’s $100,000 life insurance policy Progressive opted to aid in the defense of her killer, in hopes that if found innocent they would not be required to pay out her policy. This is despite a witnesses account that Hope struck Fisher.
The Fisher family has been reeling for over two years in disbelief that their trusted insurance company would behave in such a way, while having to absorb court costs all along. The jaw dropping account has been fully detailed by Kaitlynn’s older brother, Matt Fisher, a comedian, on his tumbler account. He describes the situation:
“Carrying Progressive insurance and getting into an accident does not entitle you to the value of your insurance policy. It just pisses off Progressive’s lawyers. Here I address you, Prospective Progressive Insurance Customer: someday when you have your accident, I promise that there will be enough wiggle room for Progressive’s bottomless stack of in-house attorneys to make a court case out of it and to hammer at that court case until you or your surviving loved ones run out of money.
Which is what Progressive decided to do to my family. In hopes that a jury would hang or decide that the accident was her fault, they refused to pay the policy to my sister’s estate.
As it happens in the state of Maryland, it is not legal for a private party to sue an insurance company if they refuse to pay out a policy. Instead individuals must sue the offending party in civil court, and if they win a judgment they are then allowed to use the judgment as leverage to sue the insurance company.”
Continue reading “Rather than pay 100k life insurance policy, Progressive defends woman’s killer” at Examiner.com.
“My dead sister paid for Progressive to defend driver who killed her”: Brother’s outrage at insurance company’s efforts to avoid paying claim
By Emily Anne Epstein (Daily Mail Online, 8/13/2012)
A brother has called out at an insurance company after it paid for lawyers to defend the negligent driver who killed his sister to avoid paying out on her policy in full.
Kaitlynn Fisher, 24, was hit and killed by a driver who ran a red light in Baltimore.
Now Matt Fisher, Katie’s older brother, wrote a desperate account of his family’s fight with Progressive, an auto insurance company, after they resorted to extreme measures to avoid the bill.
Mr Fisher says that not only did Progressive refuse to pay the $100,000 policy to her estate, they even went so far as to pay for her killer’s attorney.
Kaitlynn Fisher was driving on N. Calvert Street in Baltimore when she was hit by an SUV on June 19, 2010.
Her Honda Insight was pushed onto a curb and head-on into a light pole by the impact. The other driver, Ronald Kevin Hope III, had run a red light. He was unharmed in the accident.
Continue reading “Brother’s outrage at insurance company’s efforts to avoid paying claim” at Daily Mail Online.
Related:
- “My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court” — Matt Fisher
- Statement on the Fisher Case — Progressive
- Online post about refusal to pay fatal accident claim goes viral — Baltimore Sun