So, I have been in the property insurance claims business as an attorney for 16 years. During my time as a policyholder attorney advocate, I have helped thousands of claimants navigate the claims process that I have always described as a gauntlet.
Continue Reading Fire Loss At My Home Makes My Eyes Wide Open About The Emotions Our Clients Feel During The Claims Process—Empathy Through Agony
With the devastating strength and power these hurricanes were bringing, the last thing on anyone’s mind was these hurricanes throwing additional blows to areas that seemed outside of their “cone.” However, those of us that went through Hurricanes Harvey and Irma (and even those watching from areas outside those directly affected) recall all the news stations announcing tornado watches and warnings for over 24-hours with each storm. I recall the meteorologists’ predictions of which storm cells in the bands of these hurricanes had rotation and were producing tornados.
Continue Reading Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Produced Tornados and Tornadic Activity Across Texas and Florida
My dog can be nervous and certainly temperamental at times—does that mean I can’t get insurance with certain carriers in Florida? Maybe.
Continuing my series on ocean marine cargo insurance and claims, an important coverage for policyholders to make sure they look into (if having the risk of loss) is concealed damage coverage.
Over the past year , I have received numerous mailings from People’s Trust Insurance Company, like many other Florida policyholders.
Continue Reading People’s Trust Insurance Company Has Assertive Marketing Campaign Aimed to Attract Policyholders–But Is it Somewhat Deceiving to the Untrained Eye?
This will be part of a series of blogs on ocean cargo and inland marine insurance claims. It is a niche area within the niche of property insurance claims. Because I practice in Florida, New York and Texas, (all of which contain some of the United States’ busiest shipping ports), I have handled several of these claims when disaster strikes to cargo in transit.
Continue Reading Ocean Cargo and Inland Marine Insurance Claims–What Is Unpaid Vendor Coverage?
Your first reaction to the question in the heading of this article might be an easy and obvious “Yes.” But you might want to reconsider after reading a recent case from Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal.1
Continue Reading Do I Have To Complete The Appraisal Process Before Filing A Lawsuit Over The Claim?
This post follows up on my last post involving the insurance carriers’ right to repair. In a recent court case,1 the insurer invoked its option to repair and asked that litigation be stayed until the policyholder complied with the “right to repair” option in the policy, however the appellate court reversed trial court’s the stay order. This means the lawsuit for breach of contract will proceed.
In doing research the other day I came across a PowerPoint presentation from an insurance industry trade show where the opening slide states "Finding Financial Payback In Claims." This sure sounds like an advocation for claims departments of insurance carriers as profit centers. One of their topics during the presentation was using managed repair programs to achieve this outcome. Now many in Florida have begun seeing insurance carriers invoking the right to repair damaged property in claims with great frequency. The right to repair has always been in policies and has been very commonplace in auto damage cases, but many carriers in Florida have seriously tweaked their policy language related to these managed repair programs to contain several pages of detailed language. It is not the simple one paragraph our option to repair language anymore.
My older son Mason (who will be four years old this December) is learning about the Golden Rule in his preschool class. It got me thinking about whether claims people believe there is a place for the Golden Rule in claims adjusting? Can you honestly sit and reflect on claims you handle and state definitively that you are treating others how you would like to be treated if you were in their shoes?
Continue Reading Is There Room For Golden Rule-Like Thinking In Claims Adjusting?