Hat tip to secretstash for this one
VerdictSearch has a case report on Jon H. Dodson, M.D. and Forest Park Medical Clinic, P.A. v. Allstate Insurance Co.
Allstate told patients who were either insured or third-party claimants that Dodson was running a criminal operation; that he wasn’t licensed; he had untrained personnel; he conducted intentional overcharges for services never provided; and that personal injury attorneys in the area were told by Allstate not to send their clients to Dodson because the insurance company was going to put him out of business.
Dodson and his medical practice sued Allstate for defamation and intentional interference with contract and economic expectations. The trial was the third in a series of trials, as the prior two were appealed before the state Supreme Court. According to the plaintiff’s insurance claims expert, the defendant’s practices violated industry standards because Allstate sought to exploit the inaccessibility of the country’s judicial system in small cases, which fell in the 10th percentile and whose costs were too high to process. The defendant offered claims settlements in the lowest 10th percentile so that a huge bulk would carry down in the bottom-line profits for the defendant insurance company.
The defendant denied the allegations. Defense counsel asserted that, due to myriad frauds committed in insurance transactions by physicians and claimants, Allstate had a duty to ferret out such transactions on behalf of its policyholders; therefore, its investigations of the plaintiff were reasonable and necessary.