Your Progressive Injury Lawsuit Questions Answered
If you were involved in an accident caused by a driver with Progressive insurance, it can be challenging to know who to sue, how to negotiate with Progressive, and what steps are involved in a Progressive injury lawsuit.
You have several choices for pursuing compensation after receiving a personal injury. In many cases having an attorney can make the process easier and give you a higher chance of reaching the settlement you deserve.
Here are answers to some of the frequent questions we see about Progressive Insurance:
As of December 2022, the CEO of progressive is Tricia Griffith. She served as the COO of the company overseeing personal claims starting in 2015 before she became the CEO.
The headquarters for Progressive is located in Mayfield, Ohio.
According to multiple surveys and claims handling data, Progressive has a 3.9 score out of 5. They are ranked one of the worst for claims handling, with over 50% of respondents claiming to be unsatisfied with how difficult the claims process was, the updates they received about their claims, and how their claims were resolved.
If you’re a driver insured by Progressive, the company says they make it easy to file auto insurance claims. You have the option to submit your claim:
They state that they’ll get basic information from you and then connect you with the right person, but a claims rep might contact you to get more information before it can be escalated. If you need to escalate the claim, you can call again or go back through the mobile app to see if anything is required, like getting inspections or repairs.
If you’ve had an accident with a driver insured by Progressive, you should typically start by going through your own insurance company, who will be in contact with Progressive for you.
But sometimes it can be difficult to get the right escalation when you need it. And if you feel that Progressive is stonewalling you, or that your insurance isn’t standing up for you, that can be where legal options come into play.
Progressive gives many options for getting an insurance claim, figuring out the time frame for repairs, and more but they don’t have internal instructions on challenging your insurance payout. At best you could attempt an escalation with the representative handling your case or consider alternative legal options.
Yes, there are different circumstances where you can sue Progressive if you are injured. If you are injured in a car accident or at someone else’s home or place of business and that other person has Progressive as their property insurance, homeowners insurance, or car insurance provider, you can sue Progressive for compensation for your injuries.
If you suffer a personal injury, you can sue the person responsible for compensation. But do you sue Progressive or the driver?
There might be situations where multiple parties overlap. For example, if you get in a car accident because the other driver was negligent and running through a red light, you might not sue the driver if they were driving a company car while conducting company business. In these cases, you would sue the business owner or file a claim with Progressive if Progressive is their business car insurance provider.
If you don’t like how Progressive handles your injury claim, you have a few next steps.
Currently, there are class action lawsuits against Progressive for having undervalued total loss vehicles during injury claims.
In March 2022, a class action lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania stating that when customers were involved in car accidents where their Vehicles were totaled, the Progressive claims evaluators would apply things like “projected sold adjustments” in order to reduce the cash value on the total vehicle and therefore reduce the payout for Progressive had to make.
In 2021 Progressive settled a class action lawsuit in Washington state over similar issues.
To pursue a personal injury lawsuit against Progressive:
This depends entirely on your situation. In a progressive lawsuit, you can claim damages for things like:
However, you don’t automatically get to claim all of these. If, for example, you are involved in a car accident and the other driver has Progressive as their insurance provider, you might be able to claim compensation for medical expenses resulting from a broken arm and from lost income because you were unable to work due to the injuries.
If your injuries were severe enough that you need long-term medical care, like paralysis or traumatic brain injuries, the projected cost of your medical bills can be included in your Progressive lawsuit.
An attorney can help you determine how much you may be able to seek in damages.
In any personal injury claim, you can request two types of compensation:
Compensatory is supposed to cover the direct costs associated with your injury. This can be the medical bills, loss of income, or loss of earning capacity. A judge wants to make sure that you are in the same monetary position you would have been if you hadn’t received the injury in the first place.
In certain circumstances, you might be able to request, or a judge might award punitive damages. Punitive damages are supposed to punish the other party involved. If the negligence that led to your injury was severe like medical malpractice, a judge might award punitive damages as a way to dissuade the medical personnel from making the same mistakes again.
There are limits to both, though. Those limits vary from one state to another. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average winnings for tort cases—which include personal injury—in 2005 was $31,000, with the average compensation for car accidents at $16,000.
Insurance companies like Progressive typically calculate a settlement offer based on a variety of factors.
The first factor is the proven costs. Progressive will look at things like your medical bills, invoices or receipts for repairs to your car, and information on lost wages from your pay stubs and use all of that to determine compensation. If your vehicle is totaled they might look at the current value of that make and model and give you compensation based on that figure.
The second is the injuries themselves. Compensation for injuries is usually between one and five times the total cost of your medical bills. However, in order to get this compensation, you have to prove that your injuries were a direct result of the accident, and a big part of that is making sure that you receive medical care immediately after your injury. The severity of your injury will directly impact the amount Progressive calculates for a settlement.
If you think Progressive is offering an unfair settlement for your injuries, it may be time to pull in an attorney.
Insurance companies like Progressive typically determine pain and suffering based on a lot of factors including the injuries you sustained. After you seek medical care, you should contact an attorney. An attorney can help you file your claim with Progressive and negotiate for things like pain and suffering. Attorneys can work with you to send a demand letter with the amount you want for pain and suffering.
Progressive will rely heavily on any evidence you have including bills, receipts, and invoices as well as evidence for your injuries to determine how the injury has impacted your daily life and resulted in pain and suffering.
Sometimes it may feel like Progressive is ignoring the harms you’ve suffered or the emotional impact they’ve had. An attorney may be able to help you seek more than what Progressive has offered.
A good lawyer who has settled cases against Progressive in the past may be able to give you a helpful estimate.
On their website, Progressive states that they try to approve claims within 7 to 14 business days but it can take up to 1 month or longer depending on the complexity of the case.
Again, a big part of how long your car accident lawsuit takes is based on whether Progressive is willing to negotiate or offer a settlement, or whether you have to go to court.
This looks a little different for everyone. When you are injured in any personal injury situation, you start negotiating with Progressive for compensation by sending a demand letter. You can work with an attorney who can do this for you. A demand letter explains exactly what happened, how you were injured, how it was the other party’s fault, why Progressive is responsible for that other party, and how much you want in compensation.
During this stage, you can have an attorney represent you and negotiate back and forth with Progressive to make sure you get the compensation you deserve. Progressive can choose to look at your letter and any corresponding evidence you might have submitted and agree to pay that amount. They might come back to you and offer a lower amount.
In other cases, Progressive might respond by stating that they aren’t the person responsible for that other party, that they need more evidence, or won’t pay out at all. If that happens, your next step is to sue them in court with a personal injury lawsuit, something an attorney can help you with as well.
The best way to maximize your insurance settlement with Progressive is to have sufficient evidence to back up your claim. You need to be able to prove that the other party for whom Progressive provides insurance was negligent and that negligence directly caused your injuries. You also have to prove that the negligence in question falls under progressives policy for that other party. Finally, you need to have enough evidence to support your claims for things like injuries or lost income.
Generally, having a lawyer will often result in a stronger and more successful case with maximized settlements.
How long a Progressive lawsuit lasts depends on many factors:
Progressive states that they try to settle claims for things like vehicle accidents within 30 days but it can certainly take longer. On average personal injury claims can take between six months and two years. According to a study by the National Center for State Courts, personal injury cases average 16 months. This timeline goes up if the other party fails to admit fault or if Progressive refuses to provide compensation, and if the case has to go to trial.
You do not necessarily require an attorney for an injury claim against Progressive. In most states, you are legally allowed to represent yourself.
However, having a lawyer will often result in a stronger and more successful case.
If you are unsatisfied with the financial compensation you are receiving from Progressive after an accident, an attorney can help you maximize that compensation to cover things like damage to your car or medical expenses. If you live in an at fault state, you might need an attorney to help you collect evidence to substantiate that you were not at fault.
In a Progressive injury lawsuit, a lawyer does many things. They start by investigating your claim. Normally you can have a free consultation with an attorney, where they will go over some basic information about what happened and let you know whether you have grounds for compensation. Grounds for compensation means you have to be able to prove the other party was negligent, that negligence led to your injury, and that you have sustained damages for which they have to compensate you.
Once an attorney figures out that you have grounds for a Progressive injury lawsuit, then they’ll gather evidence on your behalf. This might include getting incident reports from the police, following up with witnesses for witness statements, having a photographer take pictures of where the accident happened, finding camera footage to confirm the accident, and more.
With enough evidence to substantiate your claim, they will draft and send a demand letter to Progressive. This demand letter will lay out what you expect in compensation. After that, your attorney will negotiate with Progressive on your behalf. This might take a lot of correspondence back and forth before a settlement can be reached to your liking. During this time, your attorney can make recommendations as to whether the amount you are being offered by Progressive is acceptable, the average for your situation, or whether you might be able to negotiate for higher compensation.
Your attorney will prepare for court if an agreement cannot be reached during this time. They will do this by conducting discovery where they depose other people and ask them many questions, interview experts and witnesses and gather as much evidence as possible for your trial.
Most personal injury attorneys work with a contingency agreement, so if you file a personal injury lawsuit against Progressive, they might not charge you anything upfront, but they will take a percentage of your total settlement, usually between 33% and 40%.
If you are ready to find a good lawyer, be advised that not all lawyers are created equal.
When you talk to different lawyers, ask about their payment structure or their fee schedule. A lot of attorneys who work on contingency will take a percentage of your settlement instead of charging you upfront. However, that percentage might not include the cost of copying documents, sending things through the mail, retrieving medical records, etc.
In addition to fees, ask about the success rate that the attorney and/or their firm have with cases like yours. Not all personal injury claims are the same, so you want someone who has handled an injury lawsuit against Progressive similar to yours. For instance, if you’ve found yourself unable to work after your accident, ask if the firm has had success working with those kinds of cases.
Don’t be afraid to ask around and talk to multiple attorneys before you find the one that you like. This is someone you have to work with for a long time, so it’s important that you’re comfortable with them and you trust them.
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