Allstate Agents Win A Round Against The Company

However, another suit, charging age discrimination, was thrown out by the judge, who said in his decision that the company's actions were not intentionally targeted at any particular age group.

The suit followed Allstate's restructuring of its agents' status in 1999?a move which affected more than 6,200 agents. Their status was changed from exclusive agents, employed by Allstate, to exclusive independent agents.

The change in their contracts, which is part of the challenge, resulted in the termination of some agents who refused to sign the new contracts.

"It's a wonderful win for the agents," said Ron Harper, a former Allstate agent in Thomson, Ga., and one of the plaintiffs in the suit. "[Our suit] has always been about signing the release."

"When they decided to convert us to independent contractors, I said, fine, I'll live with it. But when they showed that release to me and said I have to sign it, I said I'm not going to. I was told I had to or I could not stay with Allstate. That to me was inherently evil."

He added that if Allstate had never sought the signing of the waiver, there would have never been a suit.

"This is a shot across the bow to corporate America. The choice presented to us was never a choice."

Rod Guilmette, a spokesman for the Canton, Mich.-based National Association of Professional Allstate Agents, said the association welcomed the decision but was disappointed the judge threw out the age discrimination portion of the case.

"The decision does uphold what we have been saying all along, if Allstate could have gotten away with this (taking away agent's right to sue) you would have seen an avalanche of similar actions by other companies."

Michael Trevino, a spokesman for Allstate, said, "We are pleased with the judge's decision on age discrimination." He said the company was also pleased with the judge's findings that the company's restructuring did not violate pension plan regulations.

As for the contract agreement agents signed, he said Allstate "continues to believe the release is valid and enforceable" and noted that an earlier federal court decision in Ohio had agreed with the company position.

As for future actions, Allstate is "evaluating our options," at this time he said.

While the terminated agents can proceed with their suit, agents who received compensation under the restructured contract will have to return their compensation for signing the contract to Allstate before proceeding with additional legal action.

Michael Lieder from the law firm Sprienger & Lang in Washington, D.C., one of the law firms representing the Allstate agents, said they were pleased overall with the judge's decision. He said the attorneys were not too troubled over Mr. Fullam's decision to drop the age discrimination portion of the suit.

The main cause of action, he said, is that the Allstate intent in the restructuring was to deny agents benefits they were entitled to under their former contract.

He said the next step will be to issue notice to possible claimants of their standing in the suit and advise them they can become a party to the litigation.