Eli Whitlock is an air conditioner repairman in Rock Hill. He paid First Acceptance (allegedly) every month for six years. Never late. Then a driver ran a light on Cherry Road, and Eli's truck was totaled. The truck was worth about $13,500. First Acceptance (allegedly) offered $6,200, built on "comparable vehicles" that included a salvage-title truck in Ohio and a minivan. Eli needed a truck to work, so he cashed the check. He sat on hold for one hour and fifty-two minutes. He filed a complaint. He knocked on the doors of three lawyers and heard no three times. Only the fourth door opened.

Eli isn't real. These South Carolina laws are VERY real. The 11 barriers he hit are real South Carolina law. Here is what any South Carolina driver faces when an insurance company cheats them:

1. Your tap counts. An e-signature is yours if it's "the act of the person," so one thumb-tap on a renewal can bind you to pages you never read.
2. You should have read it. The state's highest court says anyone signing a contract should read it, even in a 112-degree attic.
3. You can't sue the other driver's insurance company. You have to sue the driver.
4. Any "reasonable ground" beats bad faith. A minivan in Ohio can count as a reasonable ground.
5. Cash the check to pay your bills, and it can be treated as approving the deal.
6. Paid is paid. Money paid "voluntarily" can't be recovered. That rule is from 1929.
7. One lowball doesn't count. Unfair claim practices only count when a company does them so often it's a "general business practice."
8. Three years, ticking. Every month on hold uses up your time to sue.
9. Say no to an offer, do no better at trial, and you pay their court costs from the day they made it.
10. Prove it twice. To punish a company you must show reckless conduct by clear and convincing evidence, and the company can force a second round of trial for the punishment.
11. The punishment has a price tag. Punitive damages are capped at the greater of three times your damages or $500,000, and the jury is never told. They could vote for $10 million. A judge cuts it down.

The one thing South Carolina got right: since 1983, you can sue your own insurer for bad faith or unreasonable claim handling. The door is open, even if the punishment is still capped. One out of twelve.

WE ASK GOV. MCMASTER, ATTORNEY GENERAL WILSON, DIRECTOR WISE AND THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO:

1. Lift the punitive damages cap when a company knowingly cheats its customers, and let juries hear the truth about the cap.
2. End the forced second trial and the "prove it twice" standard for everyday drivers who are cheated by their own insurer.
3. Pass a law that says a lowball offer built on out-of-state, salvage-title or wrong-type vehicles is not a "reasonable ground."
4. Remove the "general business practice" test so one cheated driver can bring an unfair-claims complaint.
5. Give drivers a direct right to bring a claim against the at-fault driver's insurance company.
6. Protect settlement offers from the court-cost trap, so no one is punished for turning down a lowball.
7. Require plain-language policy summaries, and stop treating a cashed check as a signed deal when a driver needs the money to get back to work.

This isn't one bad company. It's a system that makes fighting back too expensive for working people.

Sign this petition, then call your lawmakers: every South Carolina lawmaker's number is free at the link in bio (https://linktr.ee/thepeoplehavespoken1

We are watching how you vote.