Umpire and Appraiser Information Sharing
I sometimes get unique ideas from public adjusters. Today, I received one regarding the website, UmpireBook.com, that I want to share with you. Here is the email:
From: Public Adjuster <stephen@docudamage.com>
To: Chip Merlin
Sent: Thu Sep 10 10:22:30 2009
Subject: UmpireBook.com - The latest free tool for Public Adjusters
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UmpireBook.com
The latest free tool for Public Adjusters
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Dear WILLIAM,
If you engage in the Appraisal Process then you need to know about www.UmpireBook.com
UmpireBook was NOT developed to just give our opinions on Umpires! It was developed solely to disclose potentially biased relationships between Umpires, Insurance Carriers and insurance carrier Appraisers.Through giving a very simple rating to the Umpire along with listing the identity of the Insurance Carrier and their Appraiser then potential biased relationships begin to become very, very clear!
Before you proceed, please watch the following short video tutorial. Please make sure you turn up the sound on your computer.
Here is the video: http://www.screencast.com/t/pNzHkVl4DY
We have constructed this site in such a way as to allow the following:
1. Policyholders Appraisers will be able to register for an account at www.UmpireBook.com. Currently we are only accepting applications from Licensed Public Insurance Adjusters. Professional Appraisers as well as Attorneys will also be permitted if they can display substantial proof that they work only on the side of consumers.
2. Once registered, the user will be able to post profiles of Umpires and Insurance Carriers Appraisers that they have done business with.
3. Once a Profile of an Umpire or Insurance Carrier Appraiser has been posted then Registered Users will be able to rate their experience with the Umpire or Appraiser. The rating will consist of:
a. The date the Appraisal was concluded (The approximate date is acceptable)b. The identity of the Umpire
c. The identity of the insurance carriers Appraiser
d. The name of the Insurance Carrier
e. A rating of either Excellent, Average or Poor for the Umpire
Once the above information has been entered, the Umpire or Appraisers profile will display the rating for others to see. After numerous ratings of the same Umpire or Appraisers performance by many different Registered Users we will begin to see the following:
a. A quick "at a glance" idea of any biased relationships between Umpires and specific insurance carrier Appraisers.b. If the Umpire has been reported to have acted as an Insurance Carriers Appraiser and if so by which company and how the Registered Users Rated him while doing so.
c. A list of the Umpires that the Appraisers have worked with in the past and the Registered Users opinions of the outcome as well as a list of Appraisers that the Umpires have worked with in the past and the Registered Users Opinions on those as well.
4. The Registered User will also be allowed to make specific notes on his opinion of the performance of the Umpire or Appraiser. The notes can be quick singles sentences or whole paragraphs. The Registered User will be able to choose to make the specific notes either anonymous or allow his name to be shown as the author of the notes.
Remember, that the Umpire Book depends on you, it's users , to make it the fantastically useful tool that it can be for all of us. So, you must take the time to enter in the data. If necessary, give your secretary a list of your past Appraisals with notes on your opinions and have her enter the list. We encourage you to share your thoughts on how we might make the site better and even more functional. Please send me an email with your thoughts or comments to:
Stephen Hadhazi
Florida Public Insurance Adjuster
10311 Emnora
Houston, TX 77043
Office: (713) 689-9177
Fax: (281) 596-7508
Website: www.DocuDamage.com
Email: stephen@docudamage.com
In a property appraisal, the umpire is supposed to be fair. I am not certain if this website will help support "fairness" or not. "Excellent" ratings may suggest the umpire's rulings unfairly benefit policyholders. That is just as unfair as umpires who always rule in favor of insurance companies.
On the other hand, knowing that an umpire is "outcome oriented" rather than ruling on the evidence is important. To that extent, I think this new website will be helpful and prevent harm to policyholders.
What are your thoughts?
Comments are encouraged.
Dear Mr. Merlin:
I read the soliciation e-mail referenced in your Blog. While the concept of "UmpireBook.com" may prove fruitful for those "not in the know" about poisoned and/or biased relationships that may exist between Umpires, Appraisers and various insurance companies, I cannot get past the obvious punctuation and grammar errors contained in the e-mail!
I do not want to sound like a "nag," however, this is a "solicitation" e-mail and is apparently this vendor's first contact with you regarding their product.
In this regard, their e-mail should be:
1. Error free.
2. It should be perfect in every aspect (i.e., no
punctuation and/or grammar errors, etc.).
3. It should make a great first impression.
Unfortunately, this e-mail failed the "1-2-3" criteria noted above. Frankly, I would think twice before conducting business with a company that cannot represent itself competently on paper.
Indeed, the first sentence contains an error!
Dear WILLIAM,
If you engage in the Appraisal Process then you need to know about www.UmpireBook.com
HOW ABOUT:
Dear Mr. Merlin:
If your Firm engages in Appraisal proceedings, our FREE tool known as "UmpireBook.com" provides valuable information about the reported relationships between Umpires, Appraisers and insurance companies.
SECOND PARAGRAPH:
UmpireBook was NOT developed to just give our opinions on Umpires! It was developed solely to disclose potentially biased relationships between Umpires, Insurance Carriers and insurance carrier Appraisers.
HOW ABOUT (2nd PARA.):
UmpireBook was not developed solely to provide opinions about Umpires. It also discloses reportedly biased relationships among Umpires, Appraisers and insurance companies.
THIRD PARAGRAPH:
Through giving a very simple rating to the Umpire along with listing the identity of the Insurance Carrier and their Appraiser then potential biased relationships begin to become very, very clear!
Wow! There are some serious errors in the 3rd paragraph.
HOW ABOUT:
The way UmpireBook.com works is that its members (i.e., Public Adjusters, Plaintiff's counsel, etc.) issue a "rating" (similar to a "grade") about an Umpire following an Appraisal proceeding. Also, the name of the insurance company and the company's selected Appraiser is put into our database.
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Thanks. I hope these suggestions help Mr. Hadhazi.
SHIRLEY
I agree with Shirley and will refuse to use Mr. Hadhazi's free, but not error free, umpire/appraiser site and will only use Shirley's in the future.
Please direct me to the URL for that work of art. I trust my first impression will be nothing less than perfection.
Bill Cook
Bill,
I guess Shirley can go into the website business when she finishes school.
Thanks for your comment and participation. Hope to hear from you more often.
Hi Shirley
I do want to thank you for your comments.
Interestingly enough, I share your disdain for bad grammar & misspellings. By no means do I claim to be perfect and typically I do allot better than what was emailed out today. However, lately I have been working 12 hours a day and getting up at 4am to develop a website. Sometimes, a person just gets tired and frankly doesn't have the energy to spend the time to think of different ways to phrase things (like right now).
UmpireBook.com is a public service project that requires everyone's help to make it work. This assistance can be in the way of posting Umpire reviews or re-writing the ad copy. Shirley, I would like to invite you to assist us in re-writing the explanation of the forum benefits. If you would agree to do this for us then I will gladly replace my copy with yours.
Please let me know if you would be willing to help.
Thanks Shirley!
Steve Hadhazi
Steve,
I will be speaking for about two hours regarding appraisal tomorrow. The information you are collecting could be very helpful to policyholders.
Accordingly, I will have more thoughts about your site by the end of Friday. And, I hope to share how I would suggest it can best be used to make certain that no policyholder gets "ripped off" during appraisal.
Thanks for your work and sharing your thoughts regarding Shirley's commment.
My best.
I am not happy about this site. One of the things I learned years ago as a former forensic expert, if "you put it on the web, then it is public information." Statistics sometimes are best kept confidential and therefore able to be interpreted by those who wish to use the information.
I say do not publish that data in any forum that is "discoverable by legal counsel." Keep it close to the belly, and use a phone or better yet, pass the word.
Dear Steve: I'm thrilled that you do did not take offense by my "comments." I certainly did not intend to ruffle any feathers. Further, I can certainly appreciate how hard Public Adjusters (and Attorneys, Legal Secretaries, Firm Administrators, etc.) work on behalf of policyholders. It is no easy task to juggle everything you are currently juggling.
It is admirable though that - in the midst of your day to day job duties - you are taking the time to try to help others with the concept of UmpireBook.com.
Finally, I would be happy to help you in any way I can (when I can), however, I would have to have my former Bosse's (Chip Merlin's) blessing before doing so!
Take care,
SHIRLEY HEFLIN
Hi Richard,
I do understand your concerns to some extent. Although it is true that the site is password protected, only licensed Public Adjusters and select attorneys and Appraisers are invited and I hand verify every single account to be sure that the person registering is who they say they are. It is without doubt that some public adjuster somewhere will allow an insurance company appraiser or umpire to utilize their log in information to view the site.
However, I cannot see where a rating of excellent, average or poor for an umpires performance in conjunction with specific insurance carrier Appraisers and insurance companies could pose a problem for our industry, though I would like to open the topic for discussion. I am always willing to listen and learn from others and it is possible that someone could point out both problems and ways to then mitigate those problems.
The way of sharing information that you had suggested is now and will always go on, but it doesn't allow the recipient of the information the value of hundreds or thousands of other peoples experiences with the Umpire with varying insurance carriers and insurance carriers Appraisers. Without that, it is almost impossible to disclose the potentially biased relationships that the Umpire may have with those parties, which is the goal of Umpirebook.com.
I would be very pleased if you could provide some feedback on what you feel the specific problems are that could be faced and any potential solutions to those problems.
Thanks!
Steve Hadhazi
Frankly, Mr. Schwartz, I agree with you. I do not think published inforfmation like this would be reliable anyway because people in this arena (i.e., Umpires, Appraisers, etc.) "change sides" frequently.
Further, if one is truly competent in their field, they're going to know "who's who" anyway w/o referring to a public website. As you said, "...statistics...are best kept confidential...."
SHIRLEY HEFLIN
Hi Shirley
I agree that Umpires and Appraisers do change sides from time to time. I would not agree that it is necessarily frequent. However, this is the reason I ask for the approximate date that the Appraisal took place.
In addition, if an Appraiser had not worked with a particular Umpire in a year or more (which does happen frequently) then how would he know if he had changed his behavior? And was the change only against one insurance carrier or Appraiser that he decided to start or stop doing a lot of business with?
By merely getting the information from one or two sources that answer may not be very clear. However, by getting that answer from a hundred or more posts I think it becomes crystal clear.
You also mentioned that if an Appraiser was competent in his or her field that they would know who is who anyway. This is not necessarily true. I know that there are allot of Umpires that Appraisers have decided to quit using years ago because they got burned and so they would have no way of knowing if that Umpire had become a little more fair. In addition, what if the Appraisers were coming into a new state where they had not worked before and did not know anyone to ask? This happened here in Texas after the hurricanes here.
Just some food for thought. The offer in my last post stands. Please give me some ideas of how the site may somehow cause any problems and let's try to work together to mitigate those problems, if any.
I know this is an old post, but just ran into it. I found the discussion interesting...
I have a feeling that *everyone's* comments were very constructive and by all means, in good intention. However, I do suspect that some of the opinions may be without the actual insight of someone in the "trenches".
As a very active personal property appraiser, I find that one of the MOST time consuming and stressful aspects of the appraisal process is the "selection of umpire". My opinion, which is only based on my experiences, is that most of the appraisers appointed by the carriers are individuals who have a history of working for, advocating, and/or marketing to, the major insurance carriers.
When I look through the last 10 appraisals I have been involved with in the last 3 months, I noticed a disturbing coincidence... Out of 10 appraisals (8 different appraisers), there was a total of only 7 individuals suggested by them as umpire. What this means is that, all though each appraisal resulted in that appraiser naming (3) competent and impartial umpire candidates, each appraiser had basically named the same exact individuals!! Even worse, when I cross referenced those candidates, they were actually the names of some of the appraisers I had in other appraisals. And in their appraisals, they named the same person that had named them!!
As this may be confusing, especially to someone who does not have much actual experience in appraisals, I am sure that the veteran appraisers will understand this and agree with my findings. This very fact is why I believe that an online database of umpire records can be very helpful, as it would potentially help solve the problem which I detailed above.
Now, I do see some potential problems with a database, such as damaging and false reviews done in order to hurt someone's credibility, "black balling", etc. etc. These basic dangers exist in any kind of community based "review" of any group or organization. I feel that with careful execution and monitoring, a site like this could be more helpful then hurtful, and "proof" based reviews may be the best approach to keep this legitimate.
I expect some type of judicial take over of this process in the next 10-15 years or so, as there probably should be some type of review of the wild west of appraisals...
By the way, most of my recent appraisals are getting so combative with respect to the umpire appointment, I have had to petition the local supreme court on 2/3s of them in recent months, as the conflict became so intense.