I Guess I Will Never Be Hired Again

And, now I might add, in addition to the proposition that I may never be hired again, that I will never be able to be insured by any of the better homeowner's insurance companies because I have a lawsuit history. Well, there goes the good protection on my home now. That's right folks. Before you even think of doing something like sue your former employer for whatever reason, think of the consequences: you may never work again in your field because court records are open, public, and go back a long way, and you may never either have the types of insurance you really need, especially liablity, because you will forever more be considered ineligible because of your history of lawsuits. If doesn't matter that you won, or that you initiated a lawsuit, that you have excellent credit, that you have no insurance claims in 10 years, or that your other lawsuit(s) is a small claims one that you won, or that no one has ever sued you, or that many others in the company sued also, or that you have a 10-year relationship with no claims with a company. It just does not matter these days. It just matters that somewhere there is a record of a lawsuit of you vs. them. The decision makers do not care about the details. They just see lawsuit and they are happy to deny you.

I never thought that the day I stood up for who I am and said yes to entering this case in the county superior court that the rest of my life would be affected in negative ways and really would be over in important ways I could never have anticipated at the time. As I said before, even criminals get their court records sealed in some instances, but us ordinary folks only get punished for life for saying hey, something here is so very wrong, I have to do something about this, I have to see a lawyer. Your lawyer will not tell you this either. I am seriously considering giving up my life passion and dream because, at this point, the probably of being hired, also taking into account all the other variables that exist for me, like age, are just about nil. I have a lawsuit. It will be there for life. Period. I could never take a job without thinking that some investigative firm, like the one listed above, would be researching my life history, despite it technically not being legal, and I would be waiting for that call to human resources to tell me I am fired. CA is an at will employment state like many others.

Maybe for the first time in my life I understand why people give up. I've been a fighter for good and right things all my life, but now I do not think I even have any right to file any kind of lawsuit for any reason anymore because it would make my lawsuit record look even worse. I have overcome so many obstracles in my life, but this is a thing that will be there forever and something I can do nothing about.

While you are entitled to your opinion, it really is erroneous that you are being denied insurance because you sued an employer. I have been engaged in countless lawsuits---in fact, I settled one this week over a property easement--I won and walked away with a tidy sum on a counter claim for harassment. I have been involved in car accident lawsuits (I was the victim) and workmans comp (from my husbands death in a work accident) and at the moment, I have competitive rates on both my homeowners insurance and car insurance. In fact, I insure five vehicles (three of them high end Corvettes) for less than $120.00 a month.

It really isn't accurate to tell other posters that because you were engaged in a lawsuit from a work dispute that your insurance rate for your home is going up. My insurance rates for my homeowners insurance literally doubled due to inflation. To suggest you are being denied homeowners insurance because six years ago you sued an employer for being wrongfully terminated simply isn't accurate.

What is the liability for a homeowners policy if you sued an employer? On what are you basing this? I can find no factual basis whatsoever for a correlation between homeowners policies and wrongful termination from a job.

This is not an opinion, this is fact. I was denied the liability coverage I need from my homeowner's insurance company because of what they call my "lawsuit history" that basically consists of sueing a former employer over seven years ago and two old small claims cases involving renters of a room in my home who did not pay rent, over five years old, which I won.

In fact, in case there is any question regarding this fact, here is a copy of the email I received from the insurance company: And, further, I did not say in my post that my homeowner insurance rates are going up, I said that it sure looks like I will not be able to find new homeowner's insurance at the level I have (need) because of what they call my "lawsuit history." I now must take on the time to find a new company to insure me because of the fact that additional liability was requested by me because my property management company requests this, and this current insurance company I have had for the last 8-9 years has denied this request. This is a fact, and this is a copy, word for word, of the response I received from the insurance company.

We have received your request to increase your liability coverage to
$500,000 as well as the completed liability profile questionnaire.

The questionnaire has been reviewed and unfortunately we are unable to
increase your liability coverage to $500,000. The reason for this decision
is the liability exposure presented by the lawsuit history information
provided.

Grace is right, there is no correlation for homeowner's insurance, auto insurance or any other kind of insurance denying you based on a personal lawsuit to do with employment. The only thing I could think of that would possibly matter would be a criminal history, but that would only apply to driving history for auto insurance. Are you giving the right information here? Who exactly denied you and what exactly were the reasons listed for denying the homeowners insurance?

Based on this, you haven't been denied coverage, you have been denied additional coverage. You need to call your agent and find out specifically what on the "lawsuit" history pertains to homeowners insurance coverages. Lawsuit history in this instance would apply only if there was a lawsuit over the property or involving someone hurt on the property. It cannot pertain to unrelated cases!!! Your underwriter needs to be more specific on this and maybe you need to provide additional information about the lawsuits to ease their minds. If that doesn't work, maybe a new company writing a separate policy would be in order. But don't cancel the coverage you do have until you find out what the heck is going on. Bye the way, Hi Gentle Grace! I'm back for awhile, juggling job, school, life and legal match posts!

Hi, Taxgrl...nice to see you again.

Insurance providers vary greatly. I recently tried to get quotes and one company wouldn't even write a policy for me because the closest fire department was rated "four" and they won't write for anything above a three. Know how the rating is determined? By how much TAX dollars are spent. Pretty crappy reason to deny ME coverage, right? If you are being denied additional coverage, look to another company. You cannot make blanket statements about any and all companies based on the narrow opinion of one.

Exactly, my thoughts too. I don't think I ever heard of an insurance company even doing a search like that on an individual's civil record. My research company does not get requests for civil or criminal searches from individuals unless it is again, for motor vehicle records (traffic violations). But the companies requesting the information are not insurance companies. I think she got some bad information and needs to dig a little and find out what is going on.

I emailed the homeowner's insurance company and requested further information on Tuesday. This is a direct, no intermediate agency, company. As of yet, no response more than the one listed above. I will contact the Insurance Commissioner if I do not get a response soon.

What is going on here??? There were no claims against my property for personal injury or property damage since 2001, when I first took their insurance. In fact, there were no claims of any kind. A small claims case where you drag a non-paying tenant who rents a room from you to court who did not pay last month's rent is a far cry from these kinds of cases. And, I am shopping other companies too. They asked me to fill out a form and asked if there were any lawsuits. I simply put down the information I listed above. What was I supposed to do, knowing how easily accessible this info is? I would not want to be in a position of stating on a form that there were no lawsuits, if there were.

I received a notice saying the changes to my homeowners policy were due to my failure to pay the premiums for NINE months. This made me laugh since the payment is auto deducted from my bank account AND I hadn't even BEEN a customer for nine months. After contacting my insurance company I determined it was a computer glitch and that the letter went out to countless people in error.

I'm betting what happened to you was an error and if it isn't, I'd get a new company.

Good luck.

Check your credit report. See if there is something about the lawsuits on your credit report somehow.