State Farm car insurance policyholders received a partial answer to their nearly two-decade-old, billion-dollar question over the insurance company’s responsibility for paying a class action judgment on Sept. 16, 2016. On that date, a federal judge in State Farm’s home state of Illinois certified a civil RICO case involving claims that State Farm improperly funded the initial election campaign of an Illinois State Supreme Court justice.
The case goes back 1997, when State Farm policyholders originally won a nearly $1.2 billion award after presenting evidence that the company forced clients to accept repairs made with generic auto parts that invalidated warranties and failed to perform adequately. State Farm appealed the judgment all the way to Illinois’ highest court and won a dismissal.
After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the dismissal, lawyers for the plaintiffs discovered that State Farm made large donations to the 2004 campaign of Lloyd Karmeier to the Illinois Supreme Court. When the company’s appeal was decided by the highest court in Illinois in 2005, Karmeier cast what plaintiffs argue was the deciding vote. Paying a reinstated judgment would now cost State Farm more than $1.7 billion.
My Virginia defective product attorney colleagues and I have found it necessary to protect plaintiffs against all kinds of insurance company tricks. Seating a friendly judge far outstrips the normal, unsavory but legal tactics of pressuring victims into making statements without having an attorney present and offering settlements that do not cover accident-related expenses. If proof exists that State Farm worked to stack the Illinois Supreme Court against policyholders it had already victimized by failing to meet policy terms, then the company should be held accountable to fullest extent of the law.
This case also concerns us because tens of thousands of Virginia and North Carolina drivers carry State Farm coverage. If the company could act so underhandedly in Illinois, what might it be doing elsewhere?
EJL
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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