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Victor Jacobellis

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Victor is committed to helping people and corporations with insurance issues throughout the entire State of California. He primarily focuses on complex commercial property losses, homeowner’s claims and insurance bad faith litigation. He also has extensive experience with matters involving general liability, builder’s risk, professional liability, marine and pollution insurance policies.
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Almost all property insurance policies require that the insured “assist and cooperate” in an insurer’s investigation. If an insured fails to “cooperate,” an insurer may have the right to deny a claim. However, the insurer cannot demand that an insured cooperate with every request. This blog discusses what requests you should ensure an insured cooperates with, what lack of cooperation may be grounds for a denial, and how to manage an insurer’s overbroad and unreasonable request. Most of the principles here are not unique to California and can serve as a general guide almost everywhere else.
Continue Reading What Constitutes Cooperation with an Insurer’s Claim Investigation in California – Ensuring Compliance and Avoiding Unnecessary Harassment

An insured should be able to overcome an insurer’s claim that the insured’s sale or disposal of property is not “spoliation” of evidence. There are many legitimate reasons why an insured may either sell their home or depose of damaged personal property after an insurer denies or fails to fully pay a claim. When an insurer does not fully pay to repair a home after it suffers significant damage, rendering the home inhabitable, an insured often does not have funds. Selling the property is often a more viable or the only solution to maintaining two households. As to damaged personal property that is a total loss, it often makes sense to dispose of the property rather than have it take up room in one’s home or pay for storage.
Continue Reading Selling or Disposing of Evidence Is Not “Spoliation” of Evidence – Countering an Insurer’s “Spoliation”

A California policyholder’s compliance with all insurance policy conditions is required for claim payment. Understanding the conditions will prevent an unnecessary claim denial and will often speed up claim payment. With yet another historic and tragic fire season occurring this year, let’s review the common policy conditions that are typically encountered during the claim adjustment and the best way to manage and ensure the policyholder’s compliance.
Continue Reading Ensuring the California Policyholder Complies with Policy Conditions During the Claim Adjustment

This updates new California legislation in anticipation of another season of devastating wildfires. California is in drought once again. Summer has just begun and there has already been record-setting heat. Although California has been spared so far, wildfires are expected to continue to run rampant through California as it continues to heat up and dry out. The anticipated wildfires are expected to bring an influx of for out-of-state insurance adjusters into California to handle the insurance claim volume. It is safe to assume that out of state adjusters will not be up to speed with 2021 changes in California insurance law. As a policyholder advocate, you can add value to any claim by simply staying current on the rapidly changing California Insurance Code and applying it to your claim representation.
Continue Reading 2021 California Legislative Update: Senate Bill 872

As wildfires continue to devastate California yet again, countless homes and businesses have been destroyed. The destruction of buildings and other property, however, does not even begin to reflect the actual extent of wildfire damages. Thousands more homes and business have been affected by smoke damage. Unfortunately, some insurance companies will refuse to recognize smoke damage alone if a property was not actually touched by a fire. If you can demonstrate that smoke has indeed affected a building and personal property, then you can also demonstrate damages and the insurer should be held accountable to pay to return the smoke affected property to its pre-loss condition.
Continue Reading The Importance of Demonstrating that Damages Exist in Smoke Damage Insurance Claims

Wildfires are ravaging California again. Climate change coupled with a prolonged heat wave and a rare summer lightening storm have lit up multiple parts of the State. The fires are hitting numerous populated areas. Homes and business are being destroyed. Unfortunately, this appears to be the new norm. Due to the increase in fire disasters, California has acted to amend the law to increase property insurance protection.
Continue Reading California Wildfires Strike Again – A Summary of Changes in the Law to Help Policyholders

The standard commercial lease for an entire building will require the tenant to either buy building insurance or reimburse the landlord’s premium payments if the landlord buys the insurance. If the tenant opts to purchase the building insurance, this often results in a lower overall premium to the tenant since the building coverage is underwritten with the tenant’s other insurance needs, such as business interruption insurance, workers compensation, liability insurance, and business personal property coverage. This begs a legal question—can a tenant can have an insurable interest in property it leases, i.e., the landlord’s building?
Continue Reading Does a Tenant Have an Insurable Interest in a Leased Building? Yes

The California Appellate Court recently ruled in a published opinion that an insurer cannot escape liability for a breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim (bad faith), because its coverage position was based an outside consultant’s findings. In the case, Fadeeff v. State Farm General Insurance Company,1 the court considered State Farm’s bold contention that an insurer should automatically be considered to have acted in good faith if its claim decision is based on an independent expert’s conclusions.
Continue Reading Can an Insurer Avoid Bad Faith Liability by Claiming it Relied on the Opinion of an Outside Consultant?

Due to the extensive loss and damage that wildfires have caused to California insureds in the last several years, the legislature has continued to pass changes to the law that benefit policyholders. We are only a little more than a quarter through 2020 and the legislature continues to focus on expanding policyholders’ rights.
Continue Reading California Legislature Introduces Even More Policyholder Friendly Legislation and Regulations

We keep stressing—and cannot stress enough—that effectively communicating an insurer’s bad faith conduct will help you go further in resolving insurance disputes. A great way to get a carrier’s attention is your ability to identify an insurer’s bad faith conduct, bring the conduct to the carrier’s attention, and explain why such conduct is prohibited. In this blog post, I’ll focus on what insurer conduct in California will demonstrate an insurer’s failure to conduct a thorough investigation. As a best practice, it is always good to let an insurer know the source prohibiting the alleged bad faith conduct. The source will always be either a statute, regulation, or case law. I have included applicable sources.
Continue Reading Another Quick California Guide to Holding an Insurer Accountable – What Constitutes a Bad Faith Lack of a Thorough Investigation