Remember my post last January, Property Insurance Appraisal Law Is Dynamic? Me neither. However, the insurance company losing the issue regarding causation being allowed in appraisal in Indiana would not give up.
How Does Indiana Treat the Twelve-Month Limitation Period to File Suit?
The whopping bad faith verdict I wrote about in Whopping Bad Faith Verdict Caused By Insurers Hiring the Policyholder’s Expert, almost never happened. The insurance policy required a lawsuit to be filed within a year of the loss. The lawsuit was not filed within that time frame.
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Does the Lack of Good Faith Mean the Insurer Was Bad and With Evil Intent? Indiana Case Suggests It Does
I hate when insurers are accused of acting in “bad faith.” Most people who say that have no idea what they are saying or writing. They are just upset with the results of an insurer investigation. It is the failure to act in the utmost of good faith and fair dealing which historically subjects an insurer to extra-contractual damages. It does not mean that the insurer was “evil” or “bad.” The law did a disservice to consumers when it called these actions “bad faith” causes of action.
What the Hail Is All the Fuss About? Indiana Hail Damage Claims In the Context of Bad Faith
Proving that an insurance company failed to act in the utmost of good faith is not as easy as it sounds. Many cry “bad faith” without fully understanding what it means or how to prove it. Winning a “bad faith” lawsuit is difficult anywhere, especially in Indiana. A recent hail damage Order1 ruling that no bad faith occurred should be read by those with hail damage cases, and especially those with property insurance claims in Indiana.
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How to File a Complaint with the Indiana Insurance Department
The Indiana Department of Insurance (IDOI) mission is to “protect consumers from illegal insurance practices by ensuring that insurance companies and producers. . . act in accordance with State insurance laws.” One way it accomplishes this is by investigating consumer complaints against insurance companies, agents, and adjusters. If you think that your insurance claim or policy has been delayed, wrongly denied, deliberately underpaid, or otherwise improperly managed, you can file a complaint with IDOI and request an investigation into the matter.
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Determining Actual Cash Value in Indiana
While the term actual cash value is typically found in a property insurance policy, it often is not defined in the policy. Courts around the country use four primary methods to give meaning to the term actual cash value when it is not defined in an insurance policy. Those methods are:
(1) replacement cost without deduction for depreciation;
(2) market value;
(3) replacement cost with deduction for depreciation; and
(4) the broad evidence rule.
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The Scope of Appraisal Part 6: Indiana
Earlier this month, a federal judge sitting in the Southern District of Indiana examined the scope of the appraisal clause in the property insurance policy. Relying on many of the same cases I have discussed in earlier blogs in this series, the court found that the appraisal panel must consider causation as part of the appraisal process:
College Football and Indiana First Party Bad Faith
This weekend marked the beginning of football season for many colleges and universities. When it comes to college football, I am a loyal fan to my alma mater, University of Notre Dame (located in South Bend, Indiana) which won its home opener on Saturday against Rice. On a related note to Indiana, my blog this week will focus on Indiana first party bad faith insurance law. You may recall I previously wrote about the statute of limitations for a property insurance claim in Indiana.
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Indiana Statute of Limitations for Property Insurance Claims
While I was not thrilled to have lost an hour of sleep last night, I will gladly trade that extra hour for an extra hour of sunlight! In thinking about the “spring forward” this weekend I became curious about which states, if any, do not currently observe Daylight Savings Time (DST).
Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and most of Arizona do not observe DST. Specifically, in Arizona, the Navajo Indian territories do observe DST.
A few years ago, the state of Indiana (where I attended college in South Bend) made a change to its observance of DST:1
From 1970 until 2006, most of Indiana in the Eastern Time Zone did not observe daylight saving time, but the entire state started to do so in April 2006 after eight counties in western Indiana were shifted from the Eastern Time Zone to the Central Time Zone.[25] One goal for observing DST was to get more Indiana counties observing the same time zone; formerly, 77 counties observed EST, 5 observed EST/EDT (the EDT usage being unofficial only), and 10 observed CST/CDT. At present, Indiana has 12 counties observing Central Daylight Time while the remaining 80 counties observe Eastern Daylight Time.
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What Constitutes a Total Loss in Indiana?
Typically, I am drawn by current events to look at certain states’ total loss standards. Last week I reviewed New Jersey case law in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, in an attempt to assist policyholders and public adjusters tasked with sifting their way through complicated insurance claims. Several weeks ago, I wrote about New York’s standard after reading an article about the Big Apple.