The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Lenny Kravitz, Mos Def, Trombone Shorty, and Tim Robbins recorded a version of The New Orleans Mardi Gras classic, It Ain’t My Fault, by Joseph Smokey Johnson and Wardell Joseph Quezergue, updating some of the lyrics for the Gulf Aid concert:
Continue Reading...The hosting site for this blog is experiencing problems caused by a massive amount of comment spam generated by 'spambots' automatically posting random junk comments to their network.
The hosting site has temporarily disabled comments on the blog while fixing the issue. They have also had to temporarily disable the email notifications that are sent out when there is a new post to the blog.
We apologize for these problems. The hosting service has estimated the problem will be fixed within the next 48 hours and comments and email notifications will be working again.
Thanks for your understanding.
It is hard to imagine that I have insurance defense counsel friends going to a fundraiser for Alex Sink at an insurance company and then coming to my home next Monday for a fundraising reception we are hosting for her. Alex Sink has respect from many or she would not have that type of divergent support in her bid to become Florida's next Governor.
Continue Reading...I appreciate the kind comments and suggestions many readers express regarding the educational nature of this Blog. Our new law firm website also has many reference materials and some funny news videos of yours truly trying to comment on a variety of legal issues.
If you have any comments or suggestions regarding our new website, please direct them to Kendra Kenney. We are always looking to improve.
A paralegal at the Port of New Orleans gave me a photograph from the September 22, 2008, Times-Picayune. She entitled the photo, "State Farm Dreams." I share it with you below.
My collegues and I coined a new term in 2004, following Hurricane Ivan. We became co-counsel with the prominent Pensacola firm of Levin, Papatonio, Thomas, Echner & Proctor. They brought a brilliant attorney, Bobby Loehr, out of semi-retirement to work with me on their insurance claim litigation. We referred to hurricane cases where nothing was left of our clients homes or businesses as "slab cases." It was an important legal designation because of the anti-concurrent causation issues and the then applicable Florida Valued Policy Laws. Upon my arrival in Mississippi just following Katrina, it was obvious to me the same litigation was going to ensue; there were thousands of "slab" cases. We actually noted these cases because they generally had the most significant damage and the most unresolved legal questions.
Continue Reading...After a long day of work, I called a client at 11:38 on Saturday night to confirm the resolution of a long and hard-fought lawsuit. An attorney in our Houston office and my paralegal immediately emailed, thanking me that they could stop working around the clock to prepare the case for trial. My work day started at 5 am, checking out the Hurricane Ike forecast. Following a two hour run with my St. Petersburg running buddies, I was on a plane with David Pettinato, our firm's hardest working attorney. We flew to Ft. Lauderdale to meet with public adjusters and sign the closing of a large case David recently won.
Continue Reading...Tropical Storm Arthur starts off the 2008 hurricane season with some early inning excitement. In my line of work, I am always asked during the summer months how many hurricanes there will be and where they will hit. The newspapers are full of stories from meteorologic prognosticators regarding these events. I simply reply it is a guess: the odds are a major hurricane will form in the Gulf of Mexico and there may be an Atlantic Coast hurricane as well. The truth is nobody knows. But the fact that nobody knows does not mean that you should not be vigilant, especially along the Gulf Coast areas in June and July.
Continue Reading...June 1st starts another hurricane season. USA Today quoted the Climate Prediction Center as saying, "there's no reason to think that break [from hurricanes over the past two years] will continue." In short, they think the probabilities are good (or bad, if you think about it) that a few times this year somebody, somewhere, is going to get whacked along the coastal areas. There are several things people and businesses should do now to prepare and then to remember as the season progresses.
Continue Reading...It's about time. For a decade, Allstate has refused to comply with discovery and court rules regarding its internal documents which demonstrate who, how and why Allstate redesigned everything in its claims program to simply pay less on claims. The Florida First District Court of Appeal issued an opinion which condemns many of the tactics Allstate and its attorneys have long used to thumb its nose at judges.
Continue Reading...That's the annual revenue of United Casualty parent, Unitrin, a company with a branded glass tower at One Wacker Drive in Chicago. To put things in perspective, even if United Casualty had paid policy limits to our clients for damages caused to their homes by Hurricane Charley, it would have probably still been shy of the $4.1 million CEO Richard C. Vie made in 2006, according to Forbes Magazine. Associated Press reporter Anthony McCarthy offers a glimpse of how over 40 low-income families are still living in mold-infested homes, some in very poor health as a result, nearly four years after the storm hit. I wonder if that sort of CEO compensation is justified when leadership risks shareholder value simply because it can't live up to the services promised at the very core of its product. I will bet that the senior management have never been to one of their customer's homes in Arcadia before or after the loss. It is pretty obvious what the company management wants out of the relationship with its policyholder customers.
If there is any question about whether consumers or insurance company officials have the power and control the legislative process, all one has to do is read the Linn's Stamp News article of May 12, 2008. It speaks for itself:
Bill set to name post office for lobbyist By Bill McAllister, Washington Correspondent Nothing in Washington more shows congress' control of the United States Postal Service than its practice of naming hundreds of local post offices in honor of community heroes, often for military personnel killed in Iraq. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) got a lot of attention April 15 when The Washington Post disclosed that the Republican wants to name a San Antonio post office after what the report called "a prominent, very-much-alive lobbyist." Columnist Jeffrey H. Birnbaum also reported that Smith's renaming legislation began moving through the House on the day that the lobbyist's employer donated $5,000 to him. Smith's bill is to honor Cyndi Taylor Krier, the vice president of Texas government relations for USAA, a large financial services and insurance company based in San Antonio, by naming a post office for her. Krier's employer, USAA, provides banking, insurance and financial services for active, reserve, retired and former service members and their dependents in the United States and overseas. Krier, 57, was described as a longtime Texas politician and officeholder whose grandfather, grandmother and mother worked for the Postal Service.
Either the Governor of Florida or Allstate is not telling the truth. The lead front page story of the St. Petersburg Times stated the following:"Gov. Charlie Crist confirmed the Allstate offer was floated recently, and he promptly rejected it. Allstate officials said.....that no offer had been made." Which is it?
Is Allstate accusing the Governor of making this up? Maybe they are playing the "would ya, if I coulda , then ya shoulda" game where no offers are "officially" made? Still, Allstate better get its agents back on the reservation because they claim Allstate offered $10 million. I know Charlie Crist. He has always been up front regarding his views even if I do not agree with him. Our relationship is good enough that when I told him I was supporting another friend for Governor, Jim Davis, Charlie said he understood, but hoped I would reconsider in the future. The Allstate spokesperson's version of the truth is another matter. Throughout the ordeal regarding McKinsey documents, Allstate maintained those claims documents had nothing to do with Homeowners' claims. I told the press Allstate was simply not telling the truth. Now that Allstate has placed those documents on its website, everyone can see Allstate lied, because McKinsey "redesigned" the methodolgy for handling homeowners claims as well. Allstate's ads ask, "Whom do you trust?" The answer should be clear to everybody--not Allstate .
The St. Petersburg Times ran a story regarding our firm's involvement with influencing pro-policyholder legislation and regulation. One would think that if the insurance industry was truly most interested in their customers, they would support our efforts. The exact opposite is what happens, and my impression of the worst offenders in Florida are Citizens, Allstate and State Farm. These three insurance companies (Citizens is actually a governmental entity, by legislation it lobbied for) lobby our regulators and legislators to block laws that support and protect consumers as well as limit what few rights policyholders have through statute. Their financial and manpower resources are significant. These resources implemented through studied strategy along with well crafted propaganda in the news and ads make them formidable opponents to laws that would even the playing field for policyholders. Heck, they even have their bought for legislators use scare tactics if such pro-policyholder laws or enforcement of the same were to occur as exemplified in this past Thursday's front page article regarding insurance reform.
We sent a letter in response to inaccuracies of the Times article.
Continue Reading...Is the Insurance Industry Trying to Justify Increases in Rates or Simply Justifying Leaving the Risk Business Along Coastal areas? These questions came to my mind after reading an article in the February 2008 edition of Natural Hazards Review. The article, Normalized Hurricane Damage in the United States: 1900-2005 , claims that by 2020 a $500 billion dollar hurricane loss could happen in South Florida. Of course, those are in 2020 dollars -- but that is off the charts compared to any previous loss. The study was made primarily by people working for the insurance industry. Accordingly, some bias may exist and consumer activists may find my questions justified. The $500 million figure seems surreal given the Katrina's calculated damage was $156 billion dollars. The study has two undeniable findings and conclusions. First, the population along coastal areas has grown. Thus, more property is in potential danger of hurricanes. The most concentrated areas are South Florida, Tampa, and the greater Houston area. All three areas have experienced significant population increases over the past century. Second, the per capita wealth has also increased over that period. Not only are more people and properties in harm's way, these people have more and more expensive properties at risk. In simple terms, we have more and better stuff to insure on an individual basis. These statistics are important. Determining the amount at risk and the amount of available insurance is important to a community and state. Since we cannot expect people are going to move away from the coast, the obvious long term solution is better risk management. The enforcement of building codes and stronger building codes are inevitable.
The Tampa Tribune reported Friday that the Florida Department of Insurance is seeking McKinsey & Company consulting reports which are allegedly tied to an Allstate plan to underpay claimants. These documents are at the heart of contention in a Colorado case where Allstate is being fined for not providing them, and also in a Missouri Department of Insurance investigation where Allstate is being fined $25,000 per day for refusing to cooperate with the state regulator's investigation. I am seeking similar documents in an Indiana case in which Allstate has been already sanctioned and ordered to provide them. For over a decade, I have criticized Allstate's reliance on a claims program which appears to unethically calculate the value of an individual's bodily injury claim and not honestly disclose how Allstate arrived at its determination.
Continue Reading...Since 1985, the Merlin Law Group has exclusively focused on Insurance Claim Presentation & Litigation, Insurance Coverage and Claim Disputes, and Insurance Bad Faith for both residential and commercial property insurance policyholders. The firm's goal is to ensure that insurance policyholders are treated fairly and adequately by insurance companies when they suffer a loss. It helps to level the playing field for policyholders when faced with teams of adjusters and attorneys protecting the interests of insurance companies and no one to protect their own. 
1-877-449-4700
Enter keywords:
