Geico

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By far, the largest auto insurance company in Hawaii is Geico.  26 percent of all auto insurance policies in Hawaii are with Geico.  (See the Insurance Information Institute for more information).  It seems like most auto accidents involve someone with Geico insurance.  Many times, both of the vehicles involved in the accident had Geico.  As the largest insurer in the State, Geico can set the trend for how much injury claims are valued.  In our experience settling claims with Geico for almost fifteen years, Geico has been the most consistent company.  They have consistently offered lower-end settlement offers for our client's injuries.  For example, if an injury is worth $20,000, Geico will usually try to settle the case for about half that amount, around $8,000-$10,000.  Some of the better insurance companies in Hawaii will offer more than $20,000, and some of the worst companies will provide more than $5,000.  So, Geico is on the lower end, but at least they aren’t the worst. 

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Geico seems to run “the tightest ship”.  In other words, most of their adjustors offer the exact amounts.  Rarely will we come across a Geico adjustor who offers something much higher or a lot lower than the other Geico adjustors would offer.  Geico has a very strong system wherein various supervisors and managers review and approve the adjuster’s valuations. 

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Some insurance adjusters will eventually cave in if you negotiate with them long enough, but not Geico. Geico adjustors rarely cave in and give you what you ask for. They are very stubborn and clearly not allowed to just offer what they want to settle the case. 

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It does seem that Geico may have some sort of bonus structure, as Geico adjusters tend to be more motivated to settle cases at the end of the year. 

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We almost always settle cases with Geico. They seem to know the magic number that can settle cases. For this reason, we will usually accept cases involving Geico as long as the potential client sounds reasonable about the amount they expect for a settlement.

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State Farm

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State Farm is the second-largest car insurance company in Hawaii, with 19 percent of the market share. As such, it seems that quite often, State Farm is one of the insurance companies that we have to deal with to settle cases. Unlike Geico, most of State Farm’s insurance adjusters are on the mainland. They seem to be spread out between Arizona, Washington, and Georgia.  

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Sadly, State Farm usually offers even less than Geico for injury claims.  Where Geico offers $8,000-$10,000 in a $20,000 case, State Farm usually provides $6,000-$8,000.  Geico has been consistent over the past decade, but State Farm has worsened.  We used to get better settlements with State Farm.  Now, it seems that they are offering a little less each time.  We hope this trend does not continue.  We are already being a little more cautious when accepting cases involving State Farm; if they get much worse, we must almost always turn down cases against them.  

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USAA

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USAA is the third-largest auto insurer in Hawaii at 12 percent.  USAA is probably the most tragic of them all.  They used to be one of the best companies out there.  We used to get reasonable settlements with them.  Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, they have worsened.  The only reason why we’re still taking cases against them is that they are currently inconsistent with the amounts they offer.  Some adjusters are still offering fair amounts even though others provide unreasonable amounts.  Referring to our prior example, for a $20,000 case, sometimes we get $15,000-$18,000 offers.  Then, we get $4,000-$6,000 offers with other adjusters.  So, it depends on which adjuster you end up with.  We’re sure that they will eventually get this fixed and will be more consistent.  We’re just hoping when they figure out how to be consistent, they’ll also decide to be reasonable.  

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Allstate

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Sorry, but we also have very bad news about Allstate.  Don’t worry, some good news is coming up below.  Allstate is the fourth-largest insurance company in Hawaii, accounting for 9 percent of the market.  Allstate is also a lousy company offering low amounts of injuries.  Their adjusters are on the mainland.  The problem with dealing with adjusters on the mainland is that they don’t understand how high the cost of living is in Hawaii.  Because of the high cost of living, Hawaii’s claims should be valued higher.  Allstate has an in-house counsel lawyer assigned to Hawaii.  As such, they aren’t worried about going to Court because they already have a lawyer on the payroll.  Allstate generally offers $4,000-$6,000 for a $20,000 case.  

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Progressive

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Finally, the news starts to get a little better.  Progressive is Hawaii's 5th largest insurance company with 7 percent of the auto insurance policies.  Thankfully, Progressive is more reasonable than the others.  In a $20,000 case, Progressive usually offers $10,000-$16,000.  Yes, this is an extensive range.  They aren’t consistent.  It depends a little on which adjuster you end up with.  We don’t usually have any issues taking cases involving Progressive as we can generally get reasonable settlement offers with them.   

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Farmers

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Farmers comprise the sixth largest in Hawaii, with almost 7 percent of the market.  They’re in the same boat as Allstate and State Farm.  In other words, Farmers usually offer unreasonable amounts.  For a $20,000 case, you’re looking at somewhere around $4,000 to $7,000.  

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Back in the good old days (5-10 years ago), Farmers was one of the only bad insurance companies that we would try to avoid. Farmers is still bad, but tragically, a couple of other insurance companies have joined them in the bad company club.  

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First Insurance

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First Insurance has 5 percent of the market share in Hawaii, making it the seventh-largest company.  We usually get very good settlement offers from First Insurance.  They’re one of the smaller companies in the State; they aren’t consistent.  However, their adjusters seem to have many latitudes in getting cases settled.  Some of our better settlements have been with First Insurance.   It’s just too bad they’re one of the smaller companies so we don’t get to deal with them very often.

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Liberty Mutual

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Liberty Mutual is Hawaii's eighth most significant auto insurance company with 5 percent of motor vehicle insurance policyholders in the State.  Liberty Mutual is like Progressive because of a broader range of settlement possibilities.  Sometimes the settlements with them are reasonable, and other times pretty good.  It depends a lot on which adjuster gets assigned to your case.  We’ll usually take cases against Liberty Mutual to get decent settlements with them.

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Island Insurance

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Last but not least, is Island Insurance, which has 3 percent of the market share. They are very similar to First Insurance. We usually get very fair settlements from them. We can only hope they can get more customers so that we can settle cases with them more often.  

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One of the complicated parts of an injury case in Hawaii is medical liens. Most of us have health insurance and think that our health insurance company pays the bills they receive and will never ask to be reimbursed for bills they’ve paid. This assumption is usually valid; however, one exception is when you’ve been involved in an auto accident in Hawaii. The medical insurance companies in Hawaii, such as HMSA, Kaiser, and HMAA, have clauses in their insurance contracts which state that if you’ve been injured in an accident and you receive compensation for those injuries, then you have to pay them back for the bills that they’ve paid. The initial reaction by most people is that this isn’t right. You pay your health insurance premiums, expect your insurance company to pay the bills, and not ask to be reimbursed when settling your injury case. We can also look at it from the medical insurance company’s point of view: they lost money because of the lousy driver, so they think they have the right to be compensated for their losses.

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These health insurance companies hire collection companies to get the money back they’ve spent on someone’s injuries due to an accident. The agents for the collection companies receive commissions based on how much they get back for the health insurance companies. One of the techniques used by the collection companies is to do anything they can to get information about the car insurance companies involved in the case. Their main goal is to place a lien on the case with the car insurance companies. Once a lien is placed on the case, then the car insurance adjusters won’t settle the case unless the injured person agrees to have them take out the medical lien amount from their settlement proceeds and pay the collection company the amount they’ve requested.

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We do everything we can to get the collection companies to discount the amounts they request. If the collection company has placed the car insurance company on notice of their lien, getting them to reduce their lien isn't easy. This is because they know that they are in a position of power. They know the case can’t be settled until their lien is resolved. In these situations, they will usually only reduce their lien by about 10 percent at the most. If the collection company hasn’t placed the car insurance company on notice, we are in a much better position to get them to reduce their lien amount. This is because they know that we’re in the position of power. When we settle the case, the client usually requests that we hold funds from the settlement in our client trust account to resolve the outstanding liens. We can then take as much time as we need to get the collection company to reduce their lien. In these situations, we can usually get them to reduce their lien by about one third.

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This is an area of law that is constantly changing. A recent Hawaii Supreme Court decision greatly limited the ability of health insurance companies to get compensation for the medical bills that they paid. Whether the health insurance plan is an ERISA plan or not makes a big difference in how much medical bills must be paid back.

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Medical liens from Med-Quest (Department of Health Services) are supported by statute, but the good thing about Quest liens is that they are required to be reduced by one-third. Quest liens are known as super liens because statutory law requires that they be paid back.

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Medical liens from Medicaid, Medicare, and Tricare are also considered super liens because federal law requires that they be paid.

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Each health insurance company and government agency has different processes and procedures for requesting reductions and paying back liens.

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Hawaii Insurance Companies Will Treat Me Fair, Right?

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It seems to be a job requirement for Hawaii insurance adjustors to have the sweetest, kindest voices. They always sound so lovely and friendly and seem eager to help you. Don’t be fooled. Hawaii insurance companies are businesses. They are not charities or government agencies.

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Like most other businesses, they will do whatever it takes to make money. They do not pay claims to be nice or because it’s the right thing to do. They only pay car accident claims because we (Hawaii Injury Attorneys) make them or they are trying to get you to accept an unreasonable settlement without hiring a lawyer.

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Have you ever noticed just how much advertising there is for insurance companies in Hawaii? It seems like it’s everywhere. You can’t turn on a sporting event without seeing insurance companies advertising at the stadium and during the commercials on TV.

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Our law firm has done some advertising; we assure you it’s costly. Why would they spend such astronomical amounts on advertising but then be so cheap and unreasonable when a legitimate claim is made? What a lucrative business it must be to charge large quantities for a product or service, but never to provide that product or service that was purchased. It seems similar to selling snow in Alaska. However, it’s different in at least one fundamental way: Hawaii State laws require people to buy insurance.

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Can you imagine Alaska State law requiring people to buy snow? If there were such a law, there would undoubtedly be advertising everywhere you looked for snow companies. It’s no wonder that insurance companies spend so much on advertising in Hawaii.

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Insurance companies will generally do a decent job compensating you for property damage to your vehicle.  This is because there isn’t much of a way around it.  There isn’t much to argue about.  They have to compensate you for your vehicle's replacement value or what it costs to repair your vehicle.

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Because they have little choice but to be somewhat reasonable regarding the property damage claim, this fools many people into thinking they will be sensible regarding your injury claim.  It’s with the bodily injury claim that they can and most likely will take advantage of you.  After all, there isn’t an exact formula telling them how much your injuries work.  Injuries are worth different amounts to different people.

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Insurance companies have access to all sorts of data, such as past jury verdicts, arbitration awards, mediator awards, and their settlement data.  They use all of this information to figure out what a reasonable settlement amount would be, and likewise will use that information to get you to settle your case for much less than a reasonable amount.  This is why having a lawyer on your side is so important.

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We have many years of experience settling car accident claims. We have a good idea of what a reasonable settlement amount is and what isn’t. We’ll use our years of experience to advise you on a reasonable settlement amount and negotiate a good settlement with the insurance adjuster.​

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The conclusion is that Hawaii insurance companies will treat you right if you have a Hawaii injury attorney on your side, forcing them to treat you right. If not, you have to hope that the insurance business will forget about making money and doing the right thing. This is highly unlikely from our extensive experience in dealing with Hawaii insurance companies.