Suit says subsidiary pressured adjuster

Jeff Elkins

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

Company continues to dispute damage claim

When 130-mile-per-hour winds tore through Blanchard on the evening of April 19, 2023, Jacob Woodard’s pregnant wife Mallory and their daughter hunkered down in a bathroom in their house as a tornado ripped the roof completely off it. Rain poured through the exposed rafters, soaking virtually everything inside. Insulation blew through the house like confetti. The walls buckled and ridge beams failed.

Jacob Woodard arrived home

moments after the storm to see his family was unscathed, but the house was far from it.

Nearly three years later, the couple and their two children are still displaced from their home, now living in a renovated shop on their property that’s less than half the size of the house at under 1,000 square feet.

The family’s wait draws out while their insurance company, Encompass, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Allstate Corporation, continues to dispute the homeowners claim as they make payments on a property they can’t even live in. Allstate and Encompass didn’t respond to requests for comment to The Oklahoman.

The Woodards filed a lawsuit against Encompass in April 2024. Their representation, Jeff Marr and his son Nick Marr of the Oklahoma City-based Marr Law Firm, say the plaintiffs’ nightmare extends well beyond the tornado itself. The case, Jeff Marr says, has uncovered what may be one of the most “egregious examples of insurance bad faith” he’s encountered in his career, calling it a “systematic scheme” in which Allstate allegedly pressured independent adjusters to alter their damage assessments to reduce claim payouts.

The Woodard case is emblematic of a broader crisis unfolding across the insurance industry. It comes as State Farm, also one of the nation’s largest homeowners insurance carriers, faces similar allegations of systematic bad faith practices designed to reduce payouts to policyholders. The Woodard lawsuit against the Allstate subsidiary joins hundreds of cases filed of that nature. Additionally, the timing is particularly significant in Oklahoma, where homeowners face some of the highest insurance rates in the U.S.

Marr said depositions and recorded conversations reveal Allstate’s bad faith practices.

“This isn’t about just one family,” Marr said. “This is about a pattern of behavior that’s been the subject of investigation at the highest levels.”

According to the initial filing, the Woodards specifically requested replacement cost coverage that would fully replace their property in the event