From "Good Hands" to Boxing Gloves -
How Allstate Changed Casualty Insurance in America
The Definitive Guide to Handling Allstate Claims

Foreword by Eugene R. Anderson, Esq.

Legal textbook only available to plaintiffs lawyers. Subject to approval.
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Media Coverage

11/07/2007 - Louisiana Attorney General bases anti trust lawsuit against Allstate, State Farm, McKinsey and others on information revealed in "From Good Hangs to Boxing Gloves" Read Story

11/06/2007 - See Allstate director’s response to "From Good Hangs to Boxing Gloves" author’s charge of putting profits ahead of policyholders—and the facts that discredit Allstate’s answers. Watch Part 1 | Part 2

09/28/2007 - Houston Chronicle praises David Berardinelli Read Story

08/22/2007 - New Orleans' The Times-Picayune interviews David Berardinelli Read Story

08/17/2007 - PBS' series NOW features David Berardinelli Read Story, Watch Video

08/03/2007 - Bloomberg.com interviews David Berardinelli Read Story

03/15/2007 - CNN Money Magazine features David Berardinelli Read Story

05/01/2006 - Business Week interviews David Berardinelli Read Story

Success Stories using From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves

“David Berardinelli's book From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves is an essential tool for any trial lawyer handling bad faith claims against Allstate. The book details how Allstate redesigned its claims handling process to offer policyholders a very simple choice: accept less than fair value for your claims or face a battery of lawyers and years of costly litigation.

David contends this “Good Hands or Boxing Gloves” approach has netted Allstate billions, and its tactics have undoubtedly influenced other carriers to follow in Allstate's bad faith path. The trouble is Allstate's approach flies in the face of the duty to act in good faith and promptly pay policyholders' claims in full. From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves highlights how Allstate's “redesigned” approach to claims handling violates its duty of good faith and was useful in our trial preparation for Fields v. Allstate, a case resulting in a $20.8 million verdict against Allstate for bad faith.

This is definitely a book Allstate doesn't want you to read but one which I highly recommend!”

Kenneth J. Allen, kenallenlaw.com

Reviews

“This book delves deep into the dark heart of the profit-boosting strategies that “efficiency” consulting firm McKinsey & Company cooked up with Allstate and the dramatic negative impact they have had on policyholders. McKinsey specializes in redesigning product delivery systems for Fortune 100 companies to maximize profits. It created a plan for Allstate's claims operations known as the “Claims Core Process Redesign” or simply CCPR. According to the authors, “since its implementation in 1995, CCPR has been the most controversial, and profitable, claim handling system in insurance industry history. To date, CCPR has generated between $15 to $25 billion in excess profits for Allstate's stockholders. It has also generated a national firestorm of bad faith litigation.”

“This estimate is based on Allstate's annual statements showing an increase in surplus from $4.5 billion in 1992 before CCPR to a staggering $21.8 billion in 2004 with an additional $14 billion distributed in that time as shareholder dividends. Allstate has consistently refused to state how much extra profit CCPR generated. However, in 2004 Allstate claims its net income rose to a “record” $3.1 billion, despite 4 hurricanes in the Southeastern United States, due to what it calls “Superior Claim Management.”

United Policyholders

“Allstate Corp., fresh from fending off criticism about its response to policyholders affected by Hurricane Katrina, faces another potential storm, this one from an author [David J. Berardinelli] who claims the insurer is forcing policyholders to accept prompt but lower payouts or risk time-consuming and expensive litigation...The book [tells how and why] the nation´s second-largest home and auto insurer treats some policyholders with ‘boxing gloves’ during their time of financial and personal duress, rather than the reassuringly familiar “good hands” highlighted in its advertising.”

Chicago Tribune, “Author throws punch at Allstate“, May 3, 2006

“In great detail, the slides show how [Allstate] shareholders could profit from the new way of handling claims, according to Berardinelli‘s notes. Based on public financial reports, Berardinelli estimates that Allstate has made at least $15 billion from CCPR by fighting minor claims, which make up the bulk of payouts.”

Lexington Herald-Leader, “Allstate accused of cheating claimants”, July 9, 2006

“It’s a story Allstate doesn’t want told.”

BusinessWeek, “In Tough Hands With Allstate”, May 1, 2006

“My reaction to reading an advanced copy of From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves is WOW!”

Eugene R. Anderson, called “The Dean of Policyholder’s Attorneys” by Business Week

“Through many years of intense litigation against Allstate, Mr. Berardinelli has captured the essence of Allstate’s, and for that matter, the entire insurance claims industry’s, business practices. He describes and documents the Zero Sum Game. For anyone engaged in bad faith litigation against either Allstate or any insurer, this book provides essential material and concepts which must be understood in order to adequately represent consumers victimized in the insurance claims process.”

Lawrence A. Anderson, President, Montana Trial Lawyers Association

“This book is phenomenal in bringing the wrongdoings of a major company to light. It is about time that the truth be told!”

Shannon Kmatz, former Allstate adjuster

“Through extraordinary effort, David Berardinelli has accomplished what insurance consumer advocates have been pursuing for a decade. He has uncovered the new corporate blueprint sweeping America that focuses industry on profit over customers. More importantly, he has exposed these principles, masquerading as trade secrets, as the smoking guns behind corporate malfeasance in the mold of Enron.”

Robert J. Hommel, Esq., Scottsdale, AZ

“This book is a must read for personal injury and bad faith trial lawyers engaged in cases with Allstate. It gives unique insight into an insurance company abandoning the indemnity principle of insurance to increase profits by using a management consulting firm that promotes a zero sum game in which injured accident victims lose. ”

Calvin Thur, Scottsdale, AZ

“Where was this book 25 years ago when I started prosecuting personal injury cases? To understand how Allstate works you only need to read a few pages. This is truly a fantastic book. A must read for every plaintiff personal injury attorney.”

Mark A. Steinberg, Steinberg & Linn, P.A.

“This work presents an excellent explanation of the source of the MIST defense and will be of use in both MIST cases and the bad faith cases that accompany them. The first eye to open is the one we have closed to how plaintiff's lawyers have been manipulated to further the success of the MIST defense. To beat your enemy you must first know your enemy.”

“The text provides a clear explanation of MIST excesses, and exposes its weaknesses. The text greatly simplifies and illuminates difficult principles that are manipulated or misused in the name of accident reconstruction, biomechanics and defense medical testimony. The explanation of the fallacy of reconstructions based upon ‘bumper standards’ is the most helpful I have found.”

“The discussion of biomechanical principles in chapter 18 is exceptionally clear and useful. Chapter's 17 and 18 will prove extremely helpful when preparing to meet so called biomechanical experts and impeaching defense medical testimony.”

William D. Robison, Vancouver, Washington

NEW 2008 UPDATE

The nation's most widely discussed legal textbook, is now available in updated form. This 2008 update, includes:

1. A completely revised layout for easier reading and reference;
2. Increased information from author David Berardinelli, including;
1. expanded content;
2. additional authorities and references;
3. a greatly expanded section on the Appendix of Berardinelli's notes on the McKinsey slide content; and
4. a completely new section of Berardinelli's reconstructed McKinsey slides as shown on PBS and CNN.
3. An entirely new section on MIST by the nation's leading MIST expert Michael Freeman, Ph.D., DC, MPH.

At 746 pages, it is the definitive guide to handling modern auto and property insurance claims, as well as bad faith and class action cases against insurers. This is the book being cited by lawyers, attorneys general, and legislators fighting insurers.

BACKGROUND

In 1992 Allstate started a pilot project that has changed the way insurance companies in America treat their customers, leading to record profits for the company. Since that time, 50% of the insurance industry have scrambled to incorporated these techniques. The others, are desperate to catch up.

Now, two of the nation's leading experts on Allstate's claims practices divulge the change in Allstate, including the creation of CCPR, the implementation of the Minor Impact Soft Tissue (MIST) claims segregation, and the implementation of Colossus for the assessment of settlement values. David Berardinelli is the bad faith lawyer who diligently worked to become the first to obtain the "McKinsey Documents" unprotected, and discusses them here at length. Michael Freeman, co-author of West's Litigating Minor Impact Soft Tissue Cases, and the nation's leading expert on injuries in minor impact collisions, discusses Allstate's creation and implementation of the MIST program. The book provides instruction for every level of trial lawyer from those dealing with Allstate on a case by case basis on personal injury claims, to the most difficult bad faith and class action cases. It considers, why Allstate changed from dealing with policyholders with "good hands" to "boxing Gloves," how to deal with the change at Allstate and other insurers, and how to win against the insurers implementing a "boxing gloves" mentality when handling of policyholder claims.

Purchase of this book is strictly limited to plaintiff lawyers practicing 100% of the time on behalf of civil plaintiffs, and in firms that only handle plaintiff work. If you do not meet this criteria, do not order this book.

Please do not mistake this book with a public version of From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves, which is 150 pages long, and is not intended for lawyers. You will miss out on most of what you need to know.

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