My (albeit limited) knowledge of insurers is that as soon as they face a large payout they will deny liability and tell the insured to pass on all letters of demand (which they will then lose or deny receiving them - standard procedures). The insurer then tells the claimants to start legal proceedings against the insured before they will even acknowledge the claim exists, and in phone calls to the claimants they will hint that they will drag out the legal process for years, but "we could settle for 10% of your claim with a confidentiality agreement".
I attended a worker's comp insurance seminar (run by our insurer but using a training company) and they explained in great detail how the insurance industry would process all claims made upon them, My notes - "Never accept liability, lose the claim, resubmit claim, ask for expensive medical reports by Dr XXX, lose all the reports and blame the claimant, attempt to bankrupt claimant, appeal any court settlement".