Additional living expense calculations are often overlooked when adjusting property insurance claims. A California class action complaint shows how Nationwide Insurance tries to save millions on that calculation:
Continue Reading Nationwide Escapes ALE Class Action Based on California Statute of Limitations
The title is a trick question. Certainly, they can be sued. But can they be sued successfully?
The California case on this issue is Lambert v. Carneghi.1 The relevant facts of the case state:
Continue Reading Can Appraisers and Umpires in California Be Sued?
The first rule regarding insurance agent negligence in California is to hire experienced insurance agent professionals who are experts in the business, duties, and responsibilities of how insurance agents and brokers are supposed to conduct their business. This post is a promised follow-up to a recent post, The Nuts and Bolts of California Property Insurance.In addition to the materials Dan Veroff and Victor Jacobellis presented in their seminar, I want to share an example to prove my point about the need to hire an insurance agent expert to determine if a case is worthy.
Continue Reading The Nuts & Bolts of Insurance Agent Negligence In California
Dan Veroff and Victor Jacobellis are attorneys at the Merlin Law Group, based in our San Francisco office. Last week, they conducted a continuing education webinar sponsored by a program through the University of California. The webinar was titled “Nuts & Bolts of Property Insurance.” I will be sharing some of the insights from this webinar in two separate blog posts. The first will cover property insurance in general, while the second will delve into the responsibilities of insurance agents and brokers, as well as policy procurement.
Continue Reading The Nuts and Bolts of California Property Insurance
A California appellate court recently held that a homeowner’s policy’s 1-year “Suit Against Us” provision applied to a Plaintiff’s Unfair Competition Claim (UCL) suit instead of the UCL’s statutory four-year limitation period.1 This opinion is an important reminder to always review the policy and be mindful of the One-Year Limitation Provision found in California policies, even if the cause of action does not seek monetary damages.
In a recent unpublished opinion,1 the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California upholds the late notice prejudice rule, where an insurer does not have to pay if the insured reports a loss late and the insurer proves it was prejudiced by the late reporting.
Continue Reading California Follows the Notice-Prejudice Rule for Late Reporting of a Loss
I love the feeling of when attorneys in our law firm are becoming masters of something better than me. Our policyholder clients and referral sources get better service than any other law firm because we share information, ideas, and methods for full recovery focusing on one area of law—first-party property insurance claims. Other law firms simply do not have the ability or inclination to invest time and money. We become subject matter experts and better than we could if we were not in our firm.
One great aspect of good conferences is the high quality of the audience. At yesterday’s First Party Claims Conference West, insurance claims expert Sandra Moriarity was in the audience. She commented that California law places insurance companies on the hook when they suggest or recommend contractors to do repair work.
The First Party Claims Conference West is underway. One of California’s premier property insurance attorneys, Joel Gumbiner, is discussing the topic of causation and concurrent causation in California.
Continue Reading Concurrent and Proximate Cause of Loss in California
The California Department of Insurance just provided its 2023 Annual Notice of the most significant laws pertaining to residential property insurance policies. The notice starts with the following introduction, which warns insurers that they must provide the notice to claimants suffering from a declared state of emergency: