Farmers, Small Claims Court and SHEESH!

Farmers Insurance is at it again! Yep, good old Farmers. Farmers, apparently, "Gets you back where you belong." Well, maybe it should be "Gets in you the back all along." (Hmmm....anyone see a future career writing jingles?

I have a client who could not settle her case with Farmers. She filed a lawsuit against their insured in small claims court. The judge ruled in her favor and a judgment was mailed out. Simple enough. Thirty days elapsed and no reply from Farmers. I told her to wait a few more days to see if the check was in the mail.

Well, it turns out that Farmers left her a message thirty seven days after the judgment came down. Farmers decided, instead of paying her, to pay the court. (A defendant who loses can pay the court in small claims court.) It will cost them an extra $25. Not a big deal, right?

Well, the catch is that the court will hold the check for 30 days. Then, it will take 4 to 6 weeks to issue a new check to my client. The result: my client doesn't get her money for 90 to 120 days after the judgment.

Why does Farmers do this? Beats me. A few options: 1. Farmers is really desperate to keep its money and needs to earn interest for that extra 30 days. 2. Farmers really doesn't want to help people. 3. Farmers wants to try to discourage people from suing their insureds in small claims court.

SHEESH! Farmers deserves some award for bad service for this nonsense.