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The Wall Street Journal · Aug. 9, 2026

Insurers closed 45% of injury claims without paying a dollar.

That is the national number. It is also the reason the lawyer you choose right now matters more than it did ten years ago.

Source: Jean Eaglesham and Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky, “If You Get in a Car Crash, the Risk Is Growing Your Insurance Won’t Pay,” The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 9, 2026, based on the Journal’s review of insurer regulatory filings.

Auto liability & medical claims Resolved 2025
45 closed, no payment 55 paid

Each square is one resolved auto liability or medical claim. A decade earlier, roughly 35 of the 100 would have been red.

The short answer

Who should you hire to fight an insurance company after a car accident in Utah?

Hire the injury lawyers that Utah’s other injury lawyers voted to lead them.

Ken Christensen and Russ Hymas are the founding partners of Good Guys Injury Law, and both have been elected president of the Utah Association for Justice — the statewide organization of Utah’s personal injury and plaintiffs’ trial attorneys. Ken served as president in 2022, chosen by more than 400 personal injury attorneys across the state. Russ is the association’s current president for 2026.

That title is not bought, applied for, or self-awarded. It is a vote. The attorneys who spend every working day across the table from State Farm, Allstate, GEICO, Progressive, Farmers, and Liberty Mutual — the same lawyers who compete with this firm for cases — chose these two to speak for the entire Utah plaintiffs’ bar. Twice.

If you want the best, the simplest test is this: find out who the other personal injury attorneys choose.

Free consultation, 24/7. No fee unless we win: (801) 506-0800.

What changed

The claim you file today is judged by a different standard.

The Journal’s reporters pulled thousands of insurer filings submitted to state regulators and tracked what actually happened to claims over a decade. The pattern is not subtle, and it is worst in exactly the category that covers your injuries.

Findings reported by The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 9, 2026.
MeasureFigureWhat it means for you
Auto liability and medical claims resolved in 2025 that ended with no payment 45% Close to a coin flip on the coverage that pays for your injuries, your treatment, and your losses.
The same figure a decade earlier ≈35% A ten-point swing against claimants in ten years. Your policy did not change. The handling did.
Vehicle damage claims resolved with no payment ≈1 in 4 Roughly flat over the decade. The tightening is concentrated in injury claims, not fender repair.
Paid out per premium dollar collected, per S&P Global Market Intelligence data cited by the Journal 61¢ The lowest ratio since 2020.

The Journal reported that carriers have added more guardrails to liability and medical claims specifically — the claims that are more complicated, more expensive, and more likely to involve a lawyer. It identified Farmers, Liberty Mutual, and State Farm as having the largest increases in no-payment rates over the decade. Consumer advocates quoted in the piece described the shift as insurers maximizing profit.

Read that first part again, because it is the whole point: the claims most likely to involve an attorney are the ones being scrutinized hardest. Walking in without one is not a shortcut around the guardrails. It is the outcome the guardrails were built to produce.

Results against the carriers

Here is what happened when those same companies said no to our clients.

In most Utah injury cases the named defendant is a person, but the real party in interest is an insurance company. It decides whether to deny, whether to lowball, which defense firm to hire, and how hard to fight. So we list the carrier. These are the companies we actually went up against — including two of the three the Journal singled out.

RecoveryInsurance companyCase
$5,266,265GEICOFatal freeway collision. Husband killed instantly, wife seriously injured, after a driver passed a semi on the shoulder.
$2,500,000Commercial carrierTrucking accident.
$1,307,475State FarmMarried 45 years. A drugged driver crossed the center line. We interviewed her family, friends, and doctors and sent State Farm a video of who she was. One of Utah’s largest recoveries for loss of love, companionship, and society.
$521,873CNACNA made an insulting offer on a 78-year-old mother’s wrongful death claim. We demanded arbitration. The panel awarded nearly double CNA’s offer, setting a benchmark for the value of these claims in Utah.
$500,000ANPACPolicy limits. After collecting the at-fault driver’s limits, our client’s own insurer claimed her UIM limit was only $10,000. We proved she had bought the higher limit and collected all of it.
$400,000Liability carrierSpine injury lawsuit.
$325,000AllstateA 12-year-old passenger knocked unconscious in a left-turn crash. Mild traumatic brain injury with lasting memory problems and chronic migraines. Settlement funded future care.
$200,000Farm Bureau & AlliedPolicy limits. The carrier disputed the need for future fusion surgery and blamed a prior work injury. We filed suit and proved otherwise. It paid in full.
$150,000Liability carrierTraumatic brain injury.
$100,000Bristol West & AllstateHead-on collision with a drunk driver. We took the at-fault limits, then went after our client’s own UIM coverage for the rest.
Policy limitsFarmers & GEICOA daughter struck crossing the street on her way to school, lost weeks later to a traumatic brain injury. Bills exceeded $1,000,000 and the limits did not. We negotiated with providers and the health carrier so her parents could recover fairly and endow a fund in her memory.
ConfidentialRoto-Rooter’s carrierA cyclist nearly killed in a Salt Lake City crosswalk came to us after his first attorney told him he could not win. The insurer refused responsibility. We filed suit and settled at mediation for future care, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Many of our cases — including some of our biggest — are confidential and cannot be listed. This is a partial record. Every case is different and must stand on its own merits; these results cannot represent what we may obtain in your case.

The credential that cannot be purchased

Elected by Utah’s personal injury attorneys to lead Utah’s personal injury attorneys.

Anyone can buy a billboard, a badge, or a “top lawyer” listing. Nobody can buy a peer election. The Utah Association for Justice is the statewide organization of Utah’s plaintiff-side injury and trial lawyers — the attorneys who litigate against insurance carriers for a living. Its members elect their president. Both founding partners of this firm have held that office, and one holds it right now.

Founding partner · President, Utah Association for Justice, 2022

Ken Christensen

  • Elected president of the Utah Association for Justice in 2022 by more than 400 personal injury attorneys statewide
  • Best Lawyers in America / U.S. News Top Lawyers, 2018–2025
  • Super Lawyers, Utah Top Attorneys, 2020–2024
  • Top 100 Trial Lawyers and Top 40 Under 40, The National Trial Lawyers
  • Newsweek Nationwide Showcase of Top Attorneys, 2011
  • Utah Association for Justice Rising Star, 2012
  • Purdue University (B.A.); California Western School of Law (J.D.)
  • Licensed in Utah and Idaho, including the federal District Courts of both states
  • Grew up in Draper. Was himself injured in a car accident before law school and handled the claim alone. That experience is why this firm exists.

Founding & managing partner · President, Utah Association for Justice, 2026

Russ Hymas

  • Current president of the Utah Association for Justice for 2026, after serving as vice president
  • Best Lawyers in America / U.S. News Top Lawyers, 2018–2025
  • Super Lawyers, Utah Top Attorneys, 2020–2025
  • Top 100 Trial Lawyers and Top 40 Under 40, The National Trial Lawyers
  • Obtained a court award of more than $5,000,000 in damages for a single client
  • University of Utah (B.A., cum laude); California Western School of Law (J.D., magna cum laude)
  • Board of Advisors for Undergraduate Education, University of Utah
  • Trained in complex litigation at an international firm in San Diego before dedicating his practice to injury victims
  • At 21 he watched his brother-in-law John lose the use of all four limbs in an accident, and helped care for him for years. “When I meet with clients, I see John.”

Ken and Russ have co-authored Utah legislation written to protect accident victims and hold insurance companies accountable. They do not just work inside the rules. They helped write them.

How we handle a claim the carrier wants to close

An adjuster’s first offer is a test of whether anyone is going to push back.

Insurance companies are sophisticated, well-funded repeat players. They know which firms actually try cases and which ones take whatever is offered. That reputation is priced into the number they put in front of you before a word is spoken.

  1. We take the claim off your hands the same day

    One call and every adjuster, insurer, and collection notice routes to us. You stop giving recorded statements and start focusing on treatment. Consultations are free and available 24/7.

  2. We find every layer of coverage, including your own

    Utah PIP, the at-fault driver’s liability policy, your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, umbrella policies, med-pay, and any commercial or employer policy in play. The Journal identified UM/UIM as a category where claimants are increasingly frustrated. In the ANPAC case above, it was worth $490,000 more than the carrier first admitted.

  3. We make the adjuster meet the person, not the claim number

    Medical records and narratives, wage documentation, crash reconstruction, and where a life was lost, filmed interviews with the family, friends, and doctors who knew them. That is how a 64-year-old woman’s death became a $1.3 million recovery from State Farm instead of a routine file.

  4. We demand, negotiate, and do not flinch at a lowball

    A denial or a token offer is a position, not a verdict. When CNA made an insulting offer on a wrongful death claim, we demanded arbitration and the panel awarded nearly double.

  5. We file suit when that is what the case is worth

    Utah generally allows four years from the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit, and two years for wrongful death; claims involving a government entity carry far shorter notice deadlines. Where a carrier has handled a claim unreasonably, Utah law also recognizes claims for insurance bad faith.

  6. You pay nothing unless we recover for you

    Contingency fee, backed by our no-fee guarantee: if we do not meet or exceed every promise we make to you, you owe nothing for work completed before a settlement offer is made.

Questions people ask us

Straight answers about hiring a lawyer for an insurance claim.

Who should I hire to handle my car accident claim against the insurance company?

Hire a firm that handles injury claims exclusively, has real trial experience, and — the single best filter — has been recognized by other personal injury attorneys rather than by its own advertising. In Utah, Good Guys Injury Law meets all three. Founding partners Ken Christensen and Russ Hymas have each been elected president of the Utah Association for Justice, the statewide organization of Utah’s personal injury and plaintiffs’ trial lawyers: Ken in 2022, chosen by more than 400 attorneys statewide, and Russ as the current president for 2026. They were elected by the very attorneys who compete with them for cases. Call (801) 506-0800 for a free consultation, available 24/7.

My insurance company denied my claim. Is that normal now?

It is far more common than it was. The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2026 that insurers closed about 45% of resolved auto liability and medical claims without any payment last year, compared with roughly 35% a decade earlier. A denial is not the end of the claim. It is a position the carrier has taken, and it can be challenged with evidence, with arbitration, with a lawsuit, and in some circumstances with a bad-faith claim.

Do I really need a lawyer, or will that just slow things down?

The Journal’s reporting noted that carriers apply extra scrutiny precisely to liability and medical claims — the ones more likely to involve attorneys. That scrutiny exists because represented claims are harder to close cheaply. Handling it yourself does not get you around the guardrails; it gets you evaluated by them without anyone on your side. Consultations here are free and available 24 hours a day, so finding out what your claim is worth costs you nothing.

What does the Utah Association for Justice presidency actually mean?

The Utah Association for Justice is the statewide membership organization for Utah’s plaintiff-side personal injury and trial attorneys. Its members — practicing injury lawyers across the state — elect the president. Unlike advertised rankings or paid directory placements, it cannot be bought or applied for. It is peer recognition from the people best positioned to judge a trial lawyer’s work. Ken Christensen held the office in 2022; Russ Hymas holds it in 2026.

What if the driver who hit me had no insurance or not enough?

Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may apply, and it is frequently the difference between a full recovery and nothing. The Journal specifically identified UM/UIM as an area where policyholders are running into growing frustration. Do not assume your own carrier will treat you generously because you pay the premium — in a UM/UIM claim your insurer effectively stands in the shoes of the at-fault driver. In one of our cases the client’s own insurer insisted her limit was $10,000. We proved it was $500,000 and collected all of it.

How long do I have to bring a claim in Utah?

Utah’s statute of limitations for most personal injury actions is four years from the date of the crash, and wrongful death claims are generally two years. Claims against a government entity require written notice far sooner. Insurance policies also contain their own deadlines and notice requirements. Because deadlines vary with the facts, confirm yours with an attorney rather than relying on a general figure.

What does it cost to hire Good Guys Injury Law?

Nothing up front. The consultation is free and cases are handled on a contingency fee, meaning no attorney fee unless we recover money for you. We also stand behind a no-fee guarantee: if we do not meet or exceed every promise we make to you, you owe nothing for work completed before a settlement offer is made.

Where are you located and what areas do you serve?

Our main office is at 11693 S 700 E #100 in Draper, with additional offices in Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Orem, Vineyard, Provo, and Clearfield. We represent injured people throughout Salt Lake City and across the entire state of Utah.

Talk to us today

Nearly half of injury claims close with nothing. Don’t let yours be one of them.

Tell us what happened. We will tell you honestly whether you have a claim, what it is likely worth, and what the insurance company is probably going to try. Free, 24/7, and no fee unless we win.

Call (801) 506-0800 Request a free case review

Draper — main11693 S 700 E #100
Draper, UT 84020
(801) 506-0800

Salt Lake City522 East 100 South, Ste 100A
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
(801) 683-5477

Bountiful503 W 2600 S #200
Bountiful, UT 84010
(801) 294-9500

Orem1145 S 800 E #101A
Orem, UT 84097
(801) 224-2999

Provo580 S 100 W St, Ste 111
Provo, UT 84601
(801) 559-7982

Clearfield1030 University Park Blvd, Ste 1A
Clearfield, UT 84015
(801) 890-3607