From "Good Hands" to Boxing Gloves: How Allstate Changed Casualty Insurance in America

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.

Where was this book twenty-five 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.

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. To beat your enemy you must first know your enemy.

I began reading this book and was captivated not only the knowledge that it provided to those of us lawyers who will still try a soft tissue case but as a standalone novel. The story reads like a Tom Clancy novel with the cast of evil characters trying to distort the tort system and deny rightful compensation to those who seek it.

Good Hands To Boxing Gloves is a must-read for every attorney who litigates automobile accident cases and should be in every litigator’s library. Dr. Freeman’s chapters methodically debunk the junk science of the MIST (minor impact soft tissue) defense with ease and eloquence. Don’t handle another soft tissue case without reading this treatise!

If only we could get this information to the masses, or, more importantly, to the legislative bodies and judiciary. This book should be required reading for them all, and for every applicant for an insurance license or insurance industry job.

The book re-inspired me and recharged my batteries. The exposure of the blatant misrepresentations that Allstate has used to cheat innocent victims can really stoke the fire to fight for justice.

Michael D. Freeman, Ph.D., one of the nations leading forensic epidemiologists, has built his career fighting against junk science in the courtroom. Dr. Freeman is to be congratulated for his outstanding work in protecting victims’ rights.

David Berardinelli’s book From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves is an essential tool for any trial lawyer handling bad faith claims against Allstate. This is definitely a book Allstate doesn’t want you to read but one which I highly recommend!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Through extraordinary effort, David Berardinelli has accomplished what insurance consumer advocates have been pursuing for a decade. He has exposed the smoking guns behind corporate malfeasance in the mold of Enron.

This book is a must-read for personal injury and bad faith trial lawyers engaged in cases with Allstate.