State Farm: A Roofer's $17M Verdict, Katrina Whistleblowers and Jake

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State Farm was founded in 1922 in Bloomington, Illinois, by retired farmer George J. Mecherle as a mutual automobile insurer for farmers, who drove less and crashed less than city motorists but paid the same premiums. As a mutual, it is owned by its policyholders. It grew into the largest U.S. property, casualty and auto insurer, with $104.2 billion in 2023 revenue, a $6.3 billion net loss that year, 65,000 employees and 19,000 captive agents. Its "Like a good neighbor" jingle was written by Barry Manilow in 1971, and Jake from State Farm began in a 2011 ad played by employee Jake Stone before actor Kevin Miles took over the role in 2020.

Behind the brand is a long record of court fights. After a 2006 Good Friday hailstorm in Indiana, roofer Joseph Radcliffe reported State Farm to regulators; the company accused him of vandalism on fabricated evidence, he faced 14 felony counts that were dismissed, and a jury awarded him $17 million. After Hurricane Katrina, adjusters Cori and Kerri Rigsby alleged that wind damage was reclassified as flood damage to shift costs to the federal flood program, and the Supreme Court upheld the verdict in a case that ended in a $100 million settlement. In 2023 State Farm stopped taking new homeowner applications in California, and in February 2025 it requested an emergency 22 percent rate hike there after the January wildfires.

• In the Campbell case, State Farm contested a 1981 crash claim, assured its driver his assets were safe, and later faced a $145 million punitive damages ruling.
• A 1993 lawsuit over a so-called Jewish Lawyers List, used to route claims to the fraud unit, ended in a $30 million settlement.
• An NYU study cited in a 2020 lawsuit found Black customers faced 20 percent higher odds of needing three or more contacts to get claims approved; the company denies the allegations.
• Attorney Dickie Scruggs pleaded guilty to trying to pay a judge a $50,000 bribe in a related Katrina settlement.
• A California regulatory review found nearly 400 claims from the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires were mishandled, delayed or underpaid.