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Litigation
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2023
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Litigation LITIGATION
The Progressive Corporation and/or its insurance subsidiaries are named as defendants in various lawsuits arising out of claims made under insurance policies written by our insurance subsidiaries in the ordinary course of business. We consider all legal actions relating to such claims in establishing our loss and loss adjustment expense reserves.
In addition, The Progressive Corporation and/or its subsidiaries are named as defendants in a number of class action or individual lawsuits that challenge certain of the operations of the subsidiaries. These cases include and/or typically have included those alleging damages as a result of, among other things: our subsidiaries’ methods used for evaluating and paying medical or injury claims or benefits, including, but not limited to, certain bodily injury, personal injury protection (PIP), uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM), and medical payment claims and for reimbursing medical costs incurred by Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries; other claims handling procedures, including, but not limited to, challenges relating to our network of repair facilities, our methods used for estimating physical damage to vehicles for repair purposes and for evaluating the actual cash value of total loss vehicles, the application of a negotiation adjustment in calculating total loss valuations, our payment of fees and taxes, our subrogation practices, our salvage practices, and our handling of diminution of value claims; homeowner claims handling practices and procedures; interpretations of the provisions of our insurance policies; our insurance product design; certain of our premium actions, including those in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; rating practices; certain marketing, sales, services, implementation and renewal practices and procedures, including with respect to accessibility and privacy; our usage-based insurance program; certain relationships with independent insurance agents; patent matters; alleged violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act; vendor data security; commercial disputes, including breach of contract; a small business grant program; and certain employment practices, including claims relating to pay practices and fair employment practices, among other matters. As of September 30, 2023, lawsuits have been certified or conditionally certified as class/collective actions in cases alleging: we improperly reduce or deny UIM benefits in New Mexico; we improperly value total loss claims in Florida, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington; we improperly fail to pay fees and taxes associated with total losses in Florida,
Michigan, and New York; we improperly adjust medical bills in Washington; we improperly calculate basic economic loss as it relates to wage loss coverage in New York; we improperly fail to timely process and pay PIP claims in Texas; we improperly reduce or deny first-party medical benefits in Arkansas; and that certain of our compensation practices and overtime payment practices are improper, including our classification of certain employees as exempt from overtime pay requirements. Other insurance companies face many of these same issues.
The nature and volume of litigation pending against The Progressive Corporation and/or its insurance subsidiaries is similar to that which was disclosed in Note 12 Litigation in our 2022 Annual Report to Shareholders.
We plan to contest the pending lawsuits vigorously, but may pursue settlement negotiations in some cases, as we deem appropriate. Although outcomes of pending cases are uncertain until final disposition, we establish accruals for these lawsuits when it is probable that a loss has been or will be incurred and we can reasonably estimate potential loss exposure, which may include a range of loss. As to lawsuits for which the loss is considered neither probable nor estimable, or is considered probable but not estimable, we do not establish an accrual. Nevertheless, we continue to evaluate pending litigation to determine if any losses not deemed probable and estimable become so, at which point we would establish an accrual at our best estimate of the loss or range of loss.
With respect to our pending lawsuits that are not related to claims under insurance policies, the accruals that we have established, if any, were not material at September 30, 2023 and 2022, or December 31, 2022, and there were no material settlements during 2022 or the first nine months of 2023. For most of these lawsuits, we do not consider any losses to be both probable and estimable, and we are unable to estimate a meaningful range of loss, if any, at this time, due to the factors discussed in Note 12 Litigation in our 2022 Annual Report to Shareholders. In the event that any one or more of these lawsuits results in a substantial judgment against us, or settlement by us, or if our accruals (if any) prove to be inadequate by a significant amount, the resulting liability could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial condition, cash flows, and/or results of operations. For a further discussion on our pending litigation and related reserving policies, see Note 12 – Litigation in our 2022 Annual Report to Shareholders.