State Farm Insurance

Quackenbush Orders State Farm to Pay Prop. 103 Rebates: The state insurance commissioner rejected an administrative law judge's December ruling that said State Farm Insurance has no rollback liability because it had not made enough profit in 1989 to justify auto insurance rebates. Chuck Quackenbush said State Farm must pay at least $172 million. He said the accounting data State Farm submitted to that judge was wrong and the methods the judge used in reaching a decision were in error.

Google Inc., with its free meals, high monthly pay and relaxed work environment, was rated by interns as the best place to work in a report released just ahead of the peak summer internship season. A software engineering intern at the search engine giant can expect an average monthly pay of $6,463, according to career website Glassdoor. Google interns, who voted the company as the most satisfying place to work, also reported additional perks such as face time with managers and opportunities to sit in on meetings.

State Farm Sues State: State Farm Insurance filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday against Insurance Commissioner Roxani Gillespie, seeking either a rate increase in its assigned risk policies or the right to stop issuing the state-required minimum liability coverage. State Farm said its assigned-risk policies have led to underwriting losses of $3.5 million a week on 207,400 policies.

The nation's largest residential insurer said Wednesday that it would stop selling new homeowners and commercial policies in storm-damaged Mississippi because of lawsuits and legislative saber-rattling over the company's handling of claims from Hurricane Katrina. The decision by State Farm Insurance is the latest by a major insurance company to reduce its risks by retreating from the nation's coastlines.

In these days of bad economic news, we are pleased to share some good news. Like the famous Mark Twain quote, the reports of State Farm's cutbacks are greatly exaggerated. In fact, we have not made any staff cutbacks, nor do we intend to. We have not laid off any employee in the 70-year history of our company, and certainly do not intend to do so. In fact, we have current openings for word processing operators, claim representatives, underwriters and other trainees. We look forward to continuing to serve Californians and the Conejo Valley.

State Farm Insurance officials Tuesday said a Chamber of Commerce report that the company trimmed more than 1,000 jobs last year is incorrect. The report released earlier this week by the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce had indicated that State Farm lost 1,137 jobs between 1990 and 1991. But a State Farm official said Tuesday that there was no change last year in the 1,000-member work force based at its regional office in Westlake Village.

State Farm Insurance Co. has stopped paying President Clinton's legal bills in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Corbin Jones, a company spokeswoman said Monday. The action coincides with an Aug. 23 ruling by a federal district judge who rejected Jones' claims that Clinton defamed her. The allegations were thrown out of the lawsuit. Mary Boone, a State Farm spokeswoman in Bloomington, Ill., said the ruling ends the company's obligation to cover the president's defense.

State Farm Insurance is asking to join a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against a network of Southern California attorneys accused of bilking insurance companies. The Illinois-based company is seeking to collect about $8.1 million from "the Alliance." State Farm on Friday filed legal papers in a bid to join an existing $30-million suit against the Alliance, which was filed in federal court in San Diego by the Fireman's Fund and Allstate Insurance companies.

State Farm Insurance has agreed to award an undisclosed sum to the parents of an 8-year-old Imperial Beach boy who died after he was accidently shot and killed in a neighbor's house this month. The settlement was for injuries the boy suffered in a car accident more than two years ago. Charles B.

The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a $1-billion fraud and breach-of-contract verdict against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., ruling that an 8-year-old case challenging use of generic parts in collision repairs should not have been tried as a class action.

State Farm Insurance Cos. agreed to pay $135 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that it failed to pay overtime to 2,600 claims adjusters in California. The settlement, approved Monday by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, is the latest multimillion-dollar payout in a wave of white-collar overtime lawsuits in California, where the laws governing this area are stricter than in other states.

Insurance experts say consumers can reduce their auto insurance bills by picking safer cars. The problem is that nobody seems to be able to agree about what exactly constitutes "safer." The issue was underscored this week when State Farm Insurance announced it was replacing its automatic discount for air bags with a new discount that would be based on a vehicle's safety record. The price break applies only to the medical coverage portion of an automobile policy.

Arguing that former state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush acted illegally, California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer asked the courts Monday to throw out agreements that allowed insurance companies to donate to foundations rather than face fines for mishandling Northridge earthquake claims.

State Senate leaders Monday released confidential state reports showing that three of the nation's largest insurance companies--20th Century, State Farm and Allstate--mishandled hundreds of claims following the Northridge earthquake. Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) said she was taking the unusual step of disclosing confidential documents because it was the only way to make public how companies had treated their policyholders after the 1994 disaster.

Public funds from a foundation created by California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush were spent on a political poll that tested his popularity and that of other state politicians, evidence presented Tuesday to a state Assembly committee shows. The existence of the $100,000 poll, conducted earlier this year by prominent Republican consultant Joe Shumate, was the most explosive revelation to surface at the opening of three days of hearings that could lead to Quackenbush's impeachment.

Effective immediately, victims of domestic violence will generally receive the same treatment as other applicants for health and life coverage from State Farm Insurance, the company said Tuesday. The announcement came less than three weeks after women's rights activists and a lawmaker contended that some of the nation's largest insurers routinely deny insurance coverage to women who have been beaten by their husbands. State Farm, based in Bloomington, Ill.

Following the lead of State Farm Insurance, Government Employees Insurance Co. has begun channeling all new applications for car insurance to a subsidiary that charges good drivers substantially higher rates than other GEICO subsidiaries charged before passage of Proposition 103.

State Farm Insurance is suing the state and a former Texas insurance commissioner for the return of information it claims is proprietary but which critics say confirms a long-standing contention that the company underserves poor communities across Los Angeles County.

Lawyers will talk, so perhaps the only real surprise is that it's taken so long for word to leak out of the $100 million State Farm Insurance secretly paid last September to settle the so-called Allegro suit, which was filed by 117 victims of the Northridge earthquake. The settlement of the case, which was named after the first plaintiff listed, Irene Allegro of Northridge, was reached under a seal of "deepest confidentiality."