If you’ve ever had a car accident or a roof leak and felt like your insurance company was treating you like a criminal instead of a customer, you aren't imagining things. There is a playbook for this. It’s a strategy designed to protect the bottom line by making the claims process so miserable that you just give up. People call it the "Three Ds." More specifically, it’s the core subject of the book Deny Delay Depose, written by Jay Feinman.
Feinman is a law professor at Rutgers, and honestly, he didn't just write a book; he exposed a systemic shift in how the insurance industry operates. For decades, insurance was sold as a "peace of mind" product. You pay your premiums, and in exchange, they catch you when you fall. But somewhere along the line—roughly in the mid-1990s—the philosophy shifted. Companies realized that they could boost profits not just by selling more policies, but by paying out less on the ones they already had.
The Blueprint of Deny Delay Depose
The title isn't just catchy. It’s a literal description of a tactical sequence.
First, they deny. Even if a claim is clearly covered, the initial response is often a "no." Why? Because a huge percentage of people will simply take that answer at face value and walk away. It's a filter. If you don't walk away, they move to stage two: delay. They ask for more paperwork. They lose your files. They change your claims adjuster three times in two months. They wait until you are desperate for the money—perhaps because your car is totaled or your house is molding—and then they offer you a "lowball" settlement.
If you still refuse to buckle? That's when they depose. They take you to court. They use their massive legal budgets to bury you in depositions and discovery requests. It’s a war of attrition. Most individuals don't have $50,000 to spend on a lawyer to fight for a $20,000 claim. The insurance company knows this. They have the math on their side.
The Allstate Connection and McKinsey & Co.
You can't talk about Deny Delay Depose without talking about Allstate and a consulting firm called McKinsey & Company. In the 90s, McKinsey helped Allstate overhaul its claims process. They introduced a system often referred to as "CCP" (Claim Core Process). The goal was to move from "good hands" to "boxing gloves."
Internal documents—which eventually came to light through massive litigation—showed that the company was encouraged to offer "zero" or very low settlements to people who didn't have lawyers. The strategy was simple: if you make it hard enough to get paid, people will stop asking. It worked brilliantly for the shareholders. For the policyholders? Not so much.
It wasn't just Allstate, though. Once one major player showed that being aggressive with claims could lead to record-breaking profits, the rest of the industry felt pressured to follow suit. It's a race to the bottom. State Farm, Farmers, and others have all faced similar criticisms and lawsuits over the years.
Why This Matters to You Right Now
You might think this is old news. The book has been out for a while. But the tactics? They’ve just become more sophisticated. Today, companies use "black box" algorithms to determine claim values. They use AI to flag "suspicious" claims that are often just expensive ones.
The core issue Feinman highlights is the "information asymmetry." The insurance company knows exactly what your claim is worth and exactly what the law requires them to do. You, on the other hand, are likely reading your policy for the first time while stressed out. They rely on your ignorance.
- Premium increases: Even while they make it harder to get paid, premiums continue to climb.
- Arbitration clauses: More and more policies now force you into private arbitration, stripping away your right to sue in open court.
- Vague policy language: Using terms like "actual cash value" or "replacement cost" in ways that are intentionally confusing.
The Myth of the Fraudulent Consumer
The industry loves to talk about insurance fraud. They claim it costs billions and that’s why they have to be so "rigorous." While fraud does exist, Feinman argues in the book that the industry uses the specter of the "fraudulent claimant" to justify mistreating honest people. It's a convenient shield. If they can frame every claimant as a potential scammer, they can justify the "boxing gloves" approach.
Actually, the real fraud often happens in the boardrooms. When a company systematically underpays thousands of legitimate claims by 10% or 15%, that adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars in "savings" that belong in the pockets of policyholders.
How to Fight Back Using the Book’s Logic
If you find yourself in the middle of a claim, you have to change your mindset. You aren't "working with" your insurance company. You are in a negotiation with a multi-billion dollar entity that has a financial incentive to pay you as little as possible.
- Document everything. Every phone call. Every email. If an adjuster says something over the phone, follow it up with an email: "Per our conversation today, you stated that..."
- Know your rights. Every state has "Bad Faith" laws. If an insurance company denies a claim without a reasonable basis, or fails to investigate properly, you can sue them for more than just the claim amount—you can get punitive damages.
- Get an advocate. Sometimes that’s a public adjuster. Sometimes it’s a lawyer. The data is clear: people with representation get significantly higher settlements than those who go it alone.
- Don't accept the first offer. It’s almost always a floor, not a ceiling.
The Regulatory Failure
One of the most frustrating parts of the Deny Delay Depose reality is that state insurance commissioners are often toothless. Many of these regulators come from the insurance industry and return to it after their term is up. It’s a revolving door. Because insurance is regulated at the state level rather than the federal level, there is a patchwork of protections that varies wildly depending on where you live.
In some states, "bad faith" laws are incredibly weak. In others, they are robust. The industry spends millions lobbying state legislatures to keep those laws weak. They want to make sure that if they get caught underpaying, the only penalty is that they have to pay what they owed in the first place. That’s not a penalty; that’s just the cost of doing business.
The Long-Term Impact on Society
When the insurance system breaks, the costs don't disappear. They just get shifted. If a homeowner can't get their roof fixed because the insurance company is "delaying," the house gets mold. The family gets sick. Maybe they lose the house. Those costs are picked up by the healthcare system, by local charities, or by the taxpayers.
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Insurance is supposed to be the "oil" in the gears of the economy. It allows people to take risks—like buying a home or starting a business—knowing that a single disaster won't ruin them. When the industry moves toward a Deny Delay Depose model, it creates a drag on the entire economy. People become more risk-averse. Trust in institutions erodes.
Is There Any Hope?
There are "mutual" insurance companies that are technically owned by the policyholders rather than shareholders. In theory, these companies have less incentive to screw over their members. However, even some mutuals have adopted the aggressive McKinsey-style tactics to stay "competitive."
The real change has to come from transparency and litigation. Books like Jay Feinman's help pull back the curtain. When juries see the internal PowerPoints and the "zero offer" memos, they tend to get very angry. Large-scale class-action lawsuits are one of the few things that actually force these companies to change their behavior, even if only for a few years until they find a new way to squeeze the system.
Actionable Steps for Policyholders
Don't wait until you have a claim to prepare.
- Read your policy now. Yes, it's boring. Do it anyway. Look for "limitations" and "exclusions."
- Check your state's "Bad Faith" reputation. Use resources like the American Association for Justice (AAJ) to see how your insurance company ranks in terms of consumer friendliness.
- Maintain a "Claims File." Keep photos of your property and receipts for major purchases in a cloud drive. If you have a claim, you’ll need this evidence instantly.
- Hire a professional if the claim is large. If your claim is over $10,000, the "expert gap" between you and the adjuster is too big to bridge on your own. A public adjuster or attorney is usually worth their fee in the final settlement amount.
The reality exposed in Deny Delay Depose is that the "good hands" are often wearing "boxing gloves." Your best defense is being an informed, persistent, and documented "difficult" claimant. If you make it more expensive for them to fight you than to pay you, you might actually get what you're owed.