Verunsichert - Alles Gute für die Zukunft (2020)

The lawyer Franziska Schlüter works as a successful claims adjuster at a large insurance company. She is doing well, and around Christmas she gets the chance to move into a significantly better position within the company. At the same time, a couple from her neighborhood asks Franziska for advice about an insurance matter. Robert Strelau has been in a wheelchair since an accident, but Aescuria Insurance, Franziska’s employer, is refusing to pay out under his occupational disability insurance policy. Franziska is not allowed to advise the Strelau family against her own employer, but she cannot stop thinking about the case. Then the widow of a policyholder who took his own life comes to the company’s headquarters and holds Franziska responsible. Franziska makes a decision: torn by her moral dilemma, she quits her job and sets out on her own as a lawyer. She wants to stand up for people whose insurance claims have repeatedly been unjustly rejected or delayed. Franziska rents an office in the law practice of attorney Sachtler, whose former partner died in a boat fire. There, she also has to take on the criminal cases of her predecessor and defend offenders. This is a major challenge for her, because in court she easily blushes when nervous, or the words fail her and her speech begins to falter. Her most important case becomes the Strelau family’s. However, the law office is far from ideal, both financially and because of personal problems. Sachtler is dependent on alcohol and sometimes ends up in a brothel while drunk. Franziska also learns that Sachtler’s wife died in the boat fire and had been having a secret affair with Sachtler’s former partner. Sachtler, however, encourages Franziska: he believes in her abilities and begins coaching her for the case. Franziska also contacts the member of the Bundestag responsible for the issue, since there are thousands of cases in which insurers refuse to make payments that are rightfully due. This is also because, under the law, customers have to prove to the insurers that they are obliged to pay. Franziska believes the laws need to be changed. Aescuria Insurance hires the best lawyers for the disputes and repeatedly tries to drag things out. Franziska and the Strelaus reject a settlement; they do not want to be fobbed off with a small lump sum and place greater hopes in a trial. The insurer then brings out all its weapons, from injunctions to investigating the smallest details relevant to determining whether the insurance claim is valid. Nevertheless, the court finds the Strelaus’ claims justified and awards them the money. Aescuria Insurance then appeals the ruling. For the Strelaus, having to wait again after all these years is exhausting. Robert Strelau is now suffering from depression and has become suicidal. Franziska goes to the media and speaks out about the practices of her former employer, for which she was once a pawn. On television, she apologizes to all the policyholders whose claims were denied. During the appeal proceedings, she persuades her former colleague Judith to testify against the insurer and its practices. As a result, the appeal is rejected.