State Farm reduced its payouts to policyholders by more than a billion dollars as massive storms tore up the rooftops of houses in Oklahoma, according to company documents released as part of an ongoing series of lawsuits.
The documents, released last week, are at the heart of a yearslong legal battle embroiling State Farm and nearly 1,000 homeowners. The lawsuits allege that the insurance giant developed a secret internal scheme in 2020 to pre-deny claims of hail damage. Complaints filed against it by the Oklahoma homeowners say the company secretly narrowed its definition of hail damage to reduce the number of full roof replacements it covered without updating policy terms, essentially creating a reality in which insurance claims were denied before they were filed.
“This decision reflects simple greed: maximizing profits for State Farm at the expense of its insureds,” one of the lawsuits argues.
