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Jeremy Brilliant/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - Help may be on the way for homeowners still dealing with damage three years after a hail storm. A federal judge cleared the way for a class action lawsuit involving State Farm Insurance claims.
It's hard to tell now, but Seth Halstead's northwest side neighborhood was pummeled by a hail storm on April 14th, 2006. Cars, trees and nearly every home was damaged to some extent.
"It's evident that there's still a few people that either didn't get their money or chose not to get their roofs replaced," said Halstead.
Halstead's home got a new roof, siding and gutters, the total $9,500 paid by homeowner's insurance. Thousands of central Indiana homeowners made repairs and their insurance claims were paid out. But thousands more had their claims denied.
"Really what we're seeking for this class is fundamental fairness," said attorney William Riley, who is with the firm Price Waicukauski & Riley, LLC. Riley said State Farm arbitrarily inspected roofs and had no objective standard for determining damage. Any State Farm policy holder who was denied a claim after the hail storm is considered part of the group which could receive compensation.
"The first thing we're looking to do is to get these people's roofs fixed that need to be fixed," said Riley.
Unrelated to the lawsuit, The Indiana Department of Insurance initiated an investigation after receiving more than 200 complaints about State Farm.
"Part of what we do here as a regulatory agency is to make sure that insurance companies are complying with the insurance laws," said Debra Webb, Indiana Department of Insurance.
According to State Farm, nearly 50,000 claims were filed after the 2006 storm. 99.7 percent have been closed, which means they have either been paid out or not. The insurer claims it has paid out $273 million relating to the hail storm alone.
Related links:
State Farm
Indiana Department of Insurance
Class action lawsuit info - Note: This link also contains contact information for the law firm handling the class action suit.
