In a far fetched ploy to malign an industry that helps the little guy in his battle against Big Insurance, the Insurance Lobby, using the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as its front, has attempted to paint the Internet as a unseemly place to promote a product. In an April 26 blog by the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform subtitled "the good; the bad; and, the ugly", the Insurance Lobby attempts to paint Legal Funding companies in a poor light because they have made use of the Internet as a place to make information available about their product.
Legal Funding helps the little guy in a dispute with Big Insurance over the fair value of a consumer's claim. Consumers use Legal Funding as a way not to have to cave to financial pressures and accept a low settlement because of an imbalance of financial resources.
The Insurance Lobby blog harps on a website that promotes that it helps people find "in minutes" the money they need to make it through the time it will take for their lawsuit to resolve. The website, LegalFundingCentral.com, quotes the American Bar Association as describing it as the Lending Tree for Legal Funding.
Considering that the Insurance industry is a primary backers of the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform, we should see if the Insurance Industry approaches its use of the Internet differently and somehow more responsibly.
The CEO of Allstate is on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors, and Allstate has been disclosed in the past (before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce decided to clam up) as a member of its tort reform arm, the Institute for Legal Reform. Allstate's direct to consumer insurance product line, Esurance, is one of the dominant auto lines promoted via the Internet.
Surely, they would not use marketing practices deemed to be so unseemly as their primary lobbying group portrays when evaluating the practices of Legal Funding companies?
A quick Internet search using Google (a non-U.S. Chamber of Commerce Member), reveals pretty much instantaneously this Esurance site: Esurance quick quote. How about that? A quick and easy way to find out how you can save on car insurance? Promoting speed?
O.K., that was too easy. Of course everyone promotes on the Internet that you should apply on their site as a quick and easy way to learn about their product features and pricing. However, we needed the Insurance Lobby to let us know that it is dirty if you do it for products that empower people in their struggle with insurance companies over disputed claims.
But they would not sink to the level of creating a Lending Tree for auto insurance, would they, after criticizing its use for Legal Funding consumers? Again, of course they would since there is nothing wrong with making it easy for consumers to comparison shop. Just look at Lending Tree for Auto Insurance.
Using a front group like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sure makes life easy when you want a certain set of rules for you and different rules for everyone who you compete with or might face in a legal dispute over the fair value of a claim.
It's perhaps no coincidence that the insurance companies that are at the top of the list of the FBIC's "Claims Hall of Shame" (Claims Hall of Shame) are promoting the propaganda meant to make the Legal Funding industry come off in a bad light by using standard corporate marketing practices.