Progressive Schemed With Mitchell to Reduce Payouts for Total Loss Cars, Class Action Alleges

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Progressive Claims Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: A policyholder has lodged a class action lawsuit against Progressive Mountain Insurance Company and Mitchell International, Inc. 
• Why: The plaintiffs claim Progressive applies baseless adjustments to decrease the value determination for vehicles deemed a total loss.
• Where: The class action lawsuit is pending in a Georgia federal court.

Insurance provider Progressive conspired with the company that values its automobile property damage loss claims to illegally decrease the amount it pays its policyholders for vehicles deemed total losses, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Keddrick Brown filed the class action complaint against Progressive Mountain Insurance Company and Mitchell International, Inc. Oct. 11 in a Georgia federal court, alleging the companies made arbitrary deductions when assessing claims for totaled vehicles.

Brown says, when Progressive is assessing a claim for a vehicle deemed a “total loss,” it sends the claim to Mitchell, which then sends back a valuation report with deductions to the value of the car which are “arbitrary and unexplained.”

Specifically, Mitchell makes what it calls a “Project Sold Adjustment” deduction. First, it looks at the comparable prices to replace a car of that make and model. And then it reduces the amount a policyholder is to get in its unexplained “Project Sold Adjustment.”

When looking at the fine print of the report, Brown says he realized the deduction was an adjustment made “to reflect consumer purchasing behavior (negotiating a different price than the listed price).” 

Brown argues that Mitchell should not be allowed to simply reduce the price he and others are paid out by estimating how much would be taken off the value of the car through people trying to negotiate the price down.

In his case, Mitchell and Progressive reduced the amount he was paid out after his 2014 Dodge Charger was totaled in May 2021 by $830.50. The payout was reduced due to Mitchell’s “arbitrary” Project Sold Adjustment, he says. 

“By aiding Progressive’s violation of Georgia law and its breach of its contractual duties with its insureds, Mitchell has interfered with the contractual relationship between Progressive and Progressive’s insureds and has engaged in a civil conspiracy with Progressive to artificially reduce the claims payments to Progressive insureds. 

He’s looking to represent anyone living in Georgia who made a total loss claim with Progressive in the past six years. Brown is suing for breach of contract and interference with contractual relations, and seeking certification of the class action damages, an injunction, and a jury trial.

This case follows another similar case filed in Pennsylvania this week. In that case, Progressive is accused of systematically lowering the cash value of loss vehicles in Pennsylvania by applying erroneous adjustments in order to pay less for total loss claims. 

Are you a policyholder who has had a “Projected Sold Adjustment” applied to your Progressive claim for a total loss vehicle? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by R. Brent Irby of Irby Law, LLC and William Greg Dobson of Lober & Dobson, LLC.

The Progressive Mountain Insurance Total Loss Adjustments Class Action Lawsuit is Keddrick Brown et al., v. Progressive Mountain Insurance Company, Case No. 3:21-cv-00175-TCB, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

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