Suing Insurance Company

[Guest guest]

>

> Hi

> just wanted to let you know that I loved your

> site........great to finally put a face with your name.

> , call me an instigator but how do you go about starting a

> class action law suit against X Insurance Co.

First, let me straighten out a misconception. The plaintiff (that's you

and others) RARELY, if ever, will want to be in a " class-action suit. "

Why? Because it is to the great benefit of the DEFENDANT, not you, if

ALL the claims are lumped into a class action so that all of them can be

beaten at once or if you win, so they only have to pay one judgment for

all the

plaintiffs.

The only ones that REALLY get any money out of the deal are the

lawyers. Plus, win or lose, ALL the plaintiffs are stuck with the

outcome. It is usually a COST SAVING measure for the defendant to try

to get all the claims lumped into a class-action. You might hear about

multi-million dollar " class-action " awards, but if there are 5 million

plaintiffs in the class, and a 10 million dollar settlement, the lawyers

get half, a whole lot will also go to pay for " costs " (depositions,

postage, copying, air fare, etc.) and the plaintiffs will all get about

$1 each.

The benefit to the Defendant is that they did not have to go to court 5

million times for 5 million different people any or all of which could

have won as little as $2 each and still more than doubled what the

Defendant would have had to pay out in a class-action (so figure their

risk if every plaintiff were to win $100 or $10,000 or $1,000,000). You

begin to get the idea why it is the DEFENDANT who wants to see a class

action, rather than have 5 million individuals coming at them to sue,

one at a time.

EACH AND EVERY ONE of you can all sue them, one at a time, which costs

the insurance company a lot more time and trouble and expense (and thus

gets their attention) and if you win, but someone else loses, you aren't

stuck with the other person's loss; whereas the next person suing after

you can point to your win to make theirs easier.

I hope that makes sense.

You rarely, if ever, want to be involved as a plaintiff in a

class-action suit.

Now, as for suing Cigna, it will depend upon the type of policy you

have. For instance, X Insurance Company may be the administrator of the

insurance plan, but your company could be self-insured, in which case, X

Insurance Co. would have some awesome duties that it owes to you under a

federal law called ERISA.

Additionally, your employer could be self-insured. The Americans with

Disabilities Act (which prohibits discrimination based on a disability

and being morbidly obese is a disability) applies to employers and

public accomodations (which does not include insurance companies).

So if your employer is self-insured, guess what? By opting to not offer

equal coverages to obese employees, there's an argument to be made that

the employer is violating federal law (the Americans with Disabilities

Act) and the employer may opt to go on and offer you the insurance

coverage rather than risk the lawsuit or fighting about it ('course,

they could fire you if they get wind of it in the wrong way, too). That

is only an issue if the employer is self-insured, though.

On the other hand, if X Insurance Company really is the insurance

company (and not a " plan administrator " or trustee), they owe *you*

duties of " good faith and fair dealing " and can be sued if they breach

those duties, and they can also be sued for breaching their contract

with you (if they have).

These are just some bases that may be possible.

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