Sam Aguiar Leads Federal Class Action Against State Farm Over Forged UM/UIM Waivers

For years, some Kentucky drivers thought they had full uninsured and underinsured motorist protection. They found out otherwise only after an accident, when State Farm denied their claims by pointing to waiver forms bearing signatures the policyholders said they never wrote.

The WAVE 3 Troubleshooters first reported the pattern in November 2018. Megan Whiteside discovered her name on a UM waiver she had never signed. When she called her State Farm agent, Bobby Dotson, a recorded call captured Dotson acknowledging the signature was not hers. Chelsea Flynn's late father faced the same problem: a policy file containing a waiver he never executed, leaving his estate exposed to unpaid medical bills after a crash. Sam Aguiar, a Louisville personal-injury attorney, began filing individual suits in Jefferson, Bullitt, and Shelby counties that month.

The complaints alleged more than isolated misconduct. Agents were said to receive bonuses, "Millionaire Club" titles, and company-sponsored travel tied to keeping claims payouts low. Stripping UM and UIM coverage without the policyholder's knowledge reduced the exposure State Farm had to pay on accident claims, according to the lawsuits. By March 2019, more than twenty such suits had been filed against State Farm and roughly a dozen of its Kentucky agents.

In June 2019, the litigation was consolidated and removed to federal court as Davis v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Case 3:19-cv-00466. The complaint also alleged that State Farm concealed the availability of stacked coverage, which Kentucky law permits when a household holds policies on multiple vehicles. Class members argued they were denied both the base UM/UIM limits and any stacking benefit they were owed.

The parties reached a settlement agreement filed with the court in February 2020. No class members filed objections. On October 28, 2020, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky held a final approval hearing and granted the motion. The court terminated the case two days later. Under the settlement, State Farm funded monetary benefits to Stacking Class Members and to Underlying Coverage Claim Class Members who submitted timely claim forms, and separately paid all costs of notice and settlement administration. The court awarded class counsel, including Aguiar, $3,400,000 in attorneys' fees and expenses.