State Farm is trying to block the Oklahoma attorney general from seeing internal company documents that illuminate how it handles property claims after heavy storms and could show whether it is improperly denying payments.
The move by Oklahoma’s largest property insurer aims to weaken Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s investigation into whether State Farm is denying or minimizing claims to save money in a state with heavy hailstorm damage.
Drummond, a Republican running for governor this year, is trying to get access to records that a state judge has ordered State Farm to turn over in a policyholder lawsuit against the insurer.
Drummond’s effort could reveal practices that insurers have fought to keep secret, particularly as extreme weather and climate change are increasing property damage and insurance claims.
