Liberty Mutual will likely appeal a $450 million settlement in the American International Group Inc. worker compensation lawsuit, company officials said.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert W. Gettleman released his written opinion to grant preliminary approval of the settlement reached with companies that alleged AIG underreported premiums to a workers’ compensation program. Liberty Mutual is mulling its options and, “in all likelihood,” will appeal the approval, according to Liberty Mutual spokesman John Cusolito. Gettlement already told the insurers during a court hearing that he was going to grant a preliminary approval to the settlement.

AIG announced at the start of the year that it had agreed to pay a group of companies – ACE, Auto Owners, Companion, FirstComp, Hartford, Technology and Travelers — $450 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Liberty Mutual’s Ohio Casualty and Safeco subsidiaries in April 2009 on behalf of a group of insurers alleging that AIG underreported workers’ compensation premiums over a 20-year period.

Liberty Mutual has worked to stop the settlement, saying it comes nowhere near the true extent of AIG’s underreporting. The company says the settlement was made because AIG agreed to release the companies from a lawsuit it filed against them.

If you need help pursuing a workers’ compensation lawsuit, please contact the New Jersey Workers’ Comp Lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A., by calling 1-888-389-5529.