United Policyholders takes action and gets things done for policyholders regarding the insurance gap issue. United Policyholders is tackling the insurance gap coverage problem by providing staff and resources to collect rogue property insurance policy forms being issued by insurance companies, to show examples of how insurers are stepping over each other to silently gain a competitive advantage of lower price with cheap insurance. Continue Reading Crazy New Policy Language? Report It To United Policyholders!

Judges should stop with the fiction that policyholders have a duty to read their insurance policies before a loss. They do not read all the insurance contracts they purchase, and nobody does. Even if they read their policies, most people would not understand the policy and certainly not contemplate every circumstance which could arise in advance of how the policy would be deciphered for those hypothetical circumstances of loss and disaster. Continue Reading Nobody Should Be Expected To Read Every Insurance Contract They Purchase

South Carolina courts have not used the phrase “broad evidence rule” in addressing actual cash value, and the South Carolina Department of Insurance considers actual cash value to be the amount needed to repair or replace the damage minus a deduction for depreciation.1 Continue Reading Calculating Actual Cash Value in South Carolina

Last week, the Texas Second Court of Appeals issued Lambert v. State Farm Lloyds,1 which follows the Texas Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Barbara Technologies Corp. v. State Farm Lloyds.2

In a recent blog post, Payment of an Appraisal Award: Is There More, I reviewed Barbara Tech and its companion case, Ortiz v. State Farm Lloyds.3 These two landmark cases hold that an insurer’s full and timely payment of an appraisal award, bars an insured’s causes of action for breach of contract and any common law and statutory bad faith claims, to the extent the bad faith claims seek only actual damages that are considered lost policy benefits. Continue Reading Invoking Appraisal – Be Careful What You Ask For

Anthony Delmedico has built one heck of a successful contractor restoration conference. Contractors in the business of rebuilding and repairing structures following a catastrophe owe it to themselves to learn and network at Win The Storm, which will be held in Phoenix on February 20-22. Continue Reading Restoration Contractors Should Go To “Win The Storm”

A tool that every policyholder attorney should use is the 30(b)(6) deposition. This is when the policyholder attorney requests the Defendant Insurance Carrier to designate “one or more officers, directors, or managing agents, or designate other persons who consent to testify on its behalf.”1 The testimony of the designee is binding upon the company, regardless of the designee’s personal knowledge of the subject matter. Continue Reading The Importance of a Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition

Homeowners insurance policies ordinarily exclude losses caused by water or sewage which backs up through sewers or drains. Does it follow that all water or sewage that infiltrates a home through sewers or drains constitutes excluded back up? Continue Reading Is All Damage Caused By Sewage or Water Infiltration Excluded By My Homeowners Insurance Policy?

Professor Alan Manning

Insurance protection gaps can be caused by many different things. One is when insurance agents suggest that a policyholder can save money by purchasing insurance to less than full value. Professor Jay Feinman warns about this and calls this the “underinsurance gap.” He defines this as occurring when “the policyholder has coverage, but in an amount that is less than the extent of actual or potential losses.” Continue Reading Beware of Insurance Agents Advising To Underinsure

Photo for The Washington Post by Stuart W. Palley.

The Kincade Fire recently burned nearly 80,000 acres of Northern Sonoma County with smoke traveling far and wide. Our incredible firefighters from across the country teamed up to bring this emergency to 100% containment with only 300 structures destroyed. Compare that to several thousand structures destroyed in the Tubbs and Atlas Fires in 2017 and the devastatingly sad Camp Fire which cost so many lives last year. Continue Reading What California Wineries with Wildfire Insurance Claims Need to Know

A federal trial court in Pennsylvania recently ruled that the assertions made by the insureds were enough to overcome the insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.1 On May 18, 2017, Nanette and Justin Bloxham’s home and contents were damaged by a fire. The home was a total loss. Continue Reading Court Rules Insured Resided at Burnt Home Based on His Assertions