Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Or, How I Became the Dragon Lady

Don’t know how many of you have ever been to New Orleans during Mardi Gras season. It lasts from 12th night, January 6, when area bakeries start selling "King Cakes" until Mardi Gras day (Fat Tuesday), the day before Ash Wednesday (beginning of Lent), some 40 days before Easter. Thus, Mardi Gras day can be anywhere from early February until sometime well up into March, depending on when Easter is each year.

But, usually, being New Orleans, the weather is fairly warm and lots of people are out.

Mardi Gras day is a spectacle to behold at least once in your lifetime. It has a bad reputation and connotation for many, but can provide a lot of family fun, as well, depending on where you go (and don’t go) about town.

One of the things many people and families like to do is dress up in costume.

One year on Mardi Gras morning, Tom and I were downtown on St. Charles Avenue watching everyone passing by, most in costumes and/or masks. You would see everything from a family costumed as a "bunch of bananas" to monsters of various kinds to Star Wars characters.

Then, along strolled three people dressed in black T-shirts with large white print across the front, "World’s Most Hated Profession." That was different and intriguing, I thought. I couldn’t wait for them to pass by so I could see the back of their shirts and see what that was!

I was in law school at the time and figured their backs probably read "Lawyers," knowing how most people love to hate lawyers.

But, no. It was worse than that. As they passed by I read, "Claims Adjusters."

I flinched.

That’s what I’d just been for over two years for a major, national insurance company (whose logo and slogan you would recognize in an instant) and was now in law school.

Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire!

Of course, we called ourselves "claims representatives," but that’s not how most of America look upon the profession. And, believe me, for the most part it’s a thankless job.

Think about it for a minute. You’re sitting in the office taking calls all day long on new claims. Everyone you talk to was just in an accident; they’re upset, they’re angry, they’re confused, they’re possibly hurt – either temporarily or permanently, they’ve suffered the loss, either temporarily or permanently, of their vehicle or home and for many of them, your guy was at fault!! Which all translates into you being the one who’s going to bear the brunt of their hostility, confusion and pain.

And, that all takes place on the better days.

Worse days are long ones spent out and about visiting injured people in hospitals, picking up police reports, investigating accident sites, tracking down and interviewing participants in the accidents and witnesses, including police officers, running down vehicles in auto shops and wrecking yards and – oh yeah – talking with all of the injured peoples’ attorneys!!

Up until the time I went to work as a claims "adjuster," I assumed, as does much of America, I think, that claims adjusters are automatically told not to pay claims, or to give all of the people they work with a very hard time. But, that was not the case at all, I found. I was never told not to pay a claim if we owed it.

My instructions were to take claims, investigate coverage, investigate the accidents, to make a liability determination within 7 days and to pay all claims I could reasonably document and justify. Period. No trying to hem-haw around or to "get out" of paying any claims owed. Nothing like that at all.

But, that’s not how victims and insureds often saw it. And, especially not how those people’s "lawyers" saw it.

So, I learned a second important truth while working as a claims rep.

I learned that the legal profession is divided between "lawyers" and "attorneys."

Lawyers are those guys you see on TV non-stop and plastered all over billboards along the highways around town, or even out on the nearest Interstate highway proclaiming "Have YOU been hurt in an accident? Call ME! I’ll get you lots of money."

We even came across one guy one time about half way through a singularly long boring trip across I-20 from Dallas to Abilene, who had plastered pads of tear off information on the walls and all around a very tiny "convenience" store along the Interstate in the middle of nowhere advertising his "expert" legal services (when we got to Abilene, 2 hours away) representing those recently involved in accidents, speeders, and especially, DUI’s!! His 800 number was first and foremost on the tear off sheets.

Attorneys comprise the rest of the legal profession. As a rule, they are upright, ethical, down to earth fellas you feel proud to know and interact with.

I worked as a claims rep in Biloxi, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast not far from New Orleans, and there were lots of Mississippi and Louisiana"good ol’ boy" lawyers around representing plaintiffs (the accident "victims") and they were the most fun to know.

I got a call from one of them one day wanting me to come over to his office across from the courthouse in Gulfport to discuss the settlement of his client’s personal injury case "caused by" our insured, of course.

I agreed to go, looking forward to meeting him, as I’d only talked with him on the phone.

He was even more delighted to meet me, he said, saying, "I’ve been dying to meet you because I heard you’re a real dragon lady!"

"Where on earth did you hear that!?!" I said. I was astounded because in handling claims, as I was in all areas of my life, I was always very calm, patient, never raised my voice and never gave anyone a hard time about anything, although I stood my ground about issues when I knew I was right.

He didn’t want to divulge his source, but I kept pestering him until he finally admitted it was the most highly recognized and advertised plaintiff lawyer along the Gulf Coast who had told him that, even though I’d never met the other guy, either, having only discussed cases with him over the phone.

"Why’d he say that?" I asked.

I couldn’t imagine. I’d never been anything but completely professional and courteous to either of them.

It turned out that because I never would immediately fork over insurance policy limits to the "top" attorney whenever he called me representing someone new, but made him show me proof and evidence of liability and injury, he didn’t like it.

I was so mad that he’d called me that!

When I left the good ol’ boy’s office, I had to stop by to meet with one of our company’s young defense attorneys and was still fuming. I told him what had just transpired and he began laughing.

"But, that’s great, Dee," he said. "That means you’re doing your job and you’re doing it well! – You should be pleased."

His words made me feel much better because I really respected him a lot and I decided he was right. If I was to be the "dragon lady," so be it. I handled cases well and settled a lot of claims with people, with and without attorneys involved, so I could be proud of all I did.

But, I couldn’t help but want to "get back" at the source of the dragon lady statement and later found the perfect way to do so.

I’ll write about how I did so when I get around to writing Part 2 of "The World’s Most Hated Profession."