Litigation

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2022

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Litigation

Litigation — The Progressive Corporation and/or its insurance subsidiaries are named as defendants in various lawsuits arising out of claims made under insurance policies written by our insurance subsidiaries in the ordinary course of business. We consider all legal actions relating to such claims in establishing our loss and loss adjustment expense reserves.

In addition, The Progressive Corporation and/or its subsidiaries are named as defendants in a number of class action or individual lawsuits that challenge certain of the operations of the subsidiaries. These cases include and/or typically have included those alleging damages as a result of, among other things, our subsidiaries’ methods used for evaluating and paying medical or injury claims or benefits, including, but not limited to, certain bodily injury, personal injury protection, uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM), and medical payment claims and for reimbursing medical costs incurred by Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries; other claims handling procedures, including, but not limited to, challenges relating to our network of repair facilities, our methods used for estimating physical damage to vehicles for repair purposes and for evaluating the actual cash value of total loss vehicles, our payment of fees and taxes, our subrogation practices, our salvage practices, and our handling of diminution of value claims; homeowner claims handling practices and procedures; our assessment of fees related to insufficient funds or reversed payments; interpretations of the provisions of our insurance policies; our insurance product design; our premium actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; rating practices; certain marketing, sales, services, implementation and renewal practices and procedures, including with respect to accessibility; our usage-based insurance program; certain relationships with independent insurance agents; patent matters; alleged violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act; commercial disputes, including breach of contract; and certain employment practices, including claims relating to pay practices and fair employment practices, among other matters. Other insurance companies face many of these same issues.

The nature and volume of litigation pending against The Progressive Corporation and/or its insurance subsidiaries is similar to that which was disclosed in Note 12 – Litigation in our 2021 Annual Report to Shareholders.

We plan to contest the pending lawsuits vigorously, but may pursue settlement negotiations in some cases, as we deem appropriate. Although outcomes of pending cases are uncertain until final disposition, we establish accruals for these lawsuits when it is probable that a loss has been or will be incurred and we can reasonably estimate potential loss exposure, which may include a range of loss. As to lawsuits for which the loss is considered neither probable or estimable, or is considered probable but not estimable, we do not establish an accrual. Nevertheless, we continue to evaluate pending litigation to determine if any losses not deemed probable and estimable become so, at which point we would establish an accrual at our best estimate of the loss or range of loss.

With respect to our pending lawsuits that are not related to claims under insurance policies, the accruals that we have established, if any, were not material at June 30, 2022 and 2021, or December 31, 2021, and there were no material settlements during 2021 or the first six months of 2022. For most of these lawsuits, we do not consider any losses to be both probable and estimable, and we are unable to estimate a meaningful range of loss, if any, at this time, due to the factors discussed in Note 12 – Litigation in our 2021 Annual Report to Shareholders. In the event that any one or more of these lawsuits results in a substantial judgment against us, or settlement by us, or if our accruals (if any) prove to be inadequate by a significant amount, the resulting liability could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial condition, cash flows, and/or results of operations. For a further discussion on our pending litigation and related reserving policies, see Note 12 – Litigation in our 2021 Annual Report to Shareholders.