MAPIA was formed in 1992 in an effort to join together various Independent Public Insurance Adjusting Companies in an effort to institute a class action lawsuit against State Farm Insurance Company to challenge their unfair method of settling property claims. State Farm Insurance Fire Insurance Company had been refusing to release payment upfront for a general contractor overhead and profit allowance. This allowance reimburses the insured for the expense incurred when hiring a general contractor to coordinate and supervise a restoration project requiring multiple contractors. While almost all other insurance companies were paying this allowance upfront, State Farm arbitrarily decided to not do the same. This resulted in a total of twenty percent of all claims payments being withheld by State Farm.
The member firms that founded MAPIA took action against State Farm Insurance Company and successfully utilized the courts to force the upfront payment of the general contractor allowance. This resulted in a verdict that benefited all policyholders in Pennsylvania. Later, a similar action was brought against State Farm in New Jersey by some of the member companies of MAPIA which resulted in a similar verdict.
Since then, MAPIA prides itself on being an organization whose members are professional and of the utmost integrity level. When hiring a member company, you can expect the best possible representation from a highly trained professional who maintains MAPIA’s high level of ethics.