Lawsuits accuse State Farm of secretly working to cut insurance payouts

A support scientist looks at radar on his phone while tracking a supercell thunderstorm in Oklahoma. Hail damage contributed to $51 billion in insured losses last year from severe storms, according to the Insurance Information Institute, an industry-backed think tank. Drew Angerer/ hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/ The storm swept into Tulsa County, Okla., around dinnertime on May 21, 2024, hammering people's houses with hail the size of golf balls. It was so loud that when a neighbor called Tim Willard, he couldn't make out what they were saying on the phone. Afterward, Willard walked outside his home to see shingles ripped from the roof and a lawn covered by an inch of ice. "These were jagged hailstones," Willard says. "They were coming just straight down and just peppered everything." Weeks later, Willard claims that an adjuster for State Farm, his home insurer, said his roof should be replaced. But that same day, State Farm reversed itself and denied Willard's insurance claim. Soon after, State Farm canceled Willard's coverage, leaving him with a battered roof that no other company would insure. "I'm kind of like most Americans: I just don't have 20 grand sitting in the bank" for a new roof, Willard says. But he worried that without coverage for his roof, the next hailstorm or tornado could be financially devastating. So he pulled money from savings and borrowed the rest to replace the roof, which enabled him to get insurance coverage elsewhere. …