Insult to Injury: Insurance, Fraud, and the Big Business of Bad Faith

Joan Hangarter bought a disability policy in 1990 to protect her should she ever become seriously ill. She dutifully paid her annual premiums for nearly a decade. But when she became disabled, she and her children found themselves homeless and bankrupt when her insurer—UnumProvident—stopped paying her benefits. With the help of attorneys Ray Bourhis and Alice Wolfson, Hangarter won a landmark $7.7 million jury verdict against Unum.

Hangarter’s dramatic story illustrates in shocking detail how insurance companies put profit above the promises they make to policyholders. Exposing the intricate systems insurance companies use to target and terminate expensive claims without just cause, Bourhis reveals the back-room mind-set that drives these illegal practices. He shows how low-level employees are duped into unethical conduct, how insurers manipulate data and witnesses in the few cases that do go to trial, and exactly what ordinary people are up against when forced to take on these behemoths.

Bourhis paints a frightening picture of how key decisions by Congress and the US Supreme Court have enabled these schemes to continue unchecked—and he provides a sorely needed roadmap to reform.

Ray bourhis is a partner with the law firm of bourhis & Wolfson in San Francisco, California, specializing in insurance bad-faith litigation. A graduate of Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, Bourhis has been a court-appointed Special Master overseeing reforms in the California Department of Insurance and was appointed by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer to her Federal Judicial Selection Advisory Committee. He was recently profiled by Ed Bradley in a 60 Minutes report concerning fraudulent insurance practices. Born and raised in Elmhurst, Queens, Bourhis credits an attempt by gang members to throw him into a blazing bonfire at the age of twelve with helping him develop the survival skills needed to deal with insurance companies. He lives in Kentfield, California.