Barry Zalma

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Professor Jeffrey Stempel is among the best legal writers of matters pertaining to insurance. When reading his work, I often think "why can’t I explain my thoughts so clearly and eloquently?" Maybe that is why he is the insurance law professor, and I am in the middle of legal muck and controversies.…

Continue Reading Leading Insurance Academic Proves State Farm Accepts “Reasonable Expectations” of Insurance Coverage

Fire was the major peril insured by the insurance industry over a hundred years ago. In the tradition that is still commonplace today, insurers wrote specific exclusions into the insurance contracts which limited when they had to pay for loss caused by fire. I guess my friends along the coasts of Mississippi and Texas could relate when they found their all-risk insurance policies which cover hurricanes excluded damage from the waters that came with the hurricane.…

Continue Reading Fireworks are Loved by Americans–and Insurance Companies Seeking Not to Pay Fourth of July Fires

The deteriorating economy appears to be having an impact on our business. We are being referred more insurance disputes involving losses that are directly the result of the souring economy.

For the first time in a decade, we have been referred several fire claims that are allegedly of an incendiary (intentionally set) cause.

There are…

Jay,

Maybe yours  and Barry Zalma‘s comments regarding the amount of fraud are correct. However, you provide no objective and reliable data to support your comments. Without that information, your unsupported statistics are little more than fear and suspicion-mongering, which governments and corporations use all the time to influence their citizens and customers.

I received a comment to a recent blog regarding a perception among many of my colleagues that insurance companies are fabricating the amount of insurance fraud that goes on in the United States. I think the comment is important to highlight because it is an admission that the insurance industry fabricated those statistics. Barry Zalma wrote in part:

Although insurance fraud exists and is recognized by insurers and police agencies, no one really knows how extensive it is because most frauds succeed and are never recognized; others are recognized and paid by the insurer who is unwilling to get into a long and drawn out fight with the fraud perpetrator; and a very few are caught and prosecuted.

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Continue Reading Insurance Fraud Expert Admits Insurance Industry Makes Up Statistics