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The gut answer to the post question is: “Of course not, Chip, that would not be fair and would encourage insurance companies to underpay and deny claims.” Still, this is the result when courts follow the literal contract language found in most “replacement cost’ policies and require policyholders to prove the amount paid above actual cash value benefits – even if the insurer failed to pay all the actual cash value benefits because of underpayment or wrongful denial.
Continue Reading Should Underpaying and Wrongfully Denying Insurance Companies Get Away With Not Paying Replacement Cost Benefits?

During the First Party Claims Conference last week, New York attorney Jonathan Lerner and I discussed the new public adjuster regulations that had just come into effect in New York on October 8. The New York Department of Financial Services listed the following in a press release announcing these new regulations:…
Continue Reading New York Public Adjusters Have New Consumer Protections To Follow

The First Party Claims Conference is going virtual this year. While trying to think of a pithy and timely topic to teach, I noticed that insurance defense attorney Shannon O’Malley of Zelle LLP, had just written an article, Commercial Property Insurance Coverage and Coronavirus.1 Since the article did not indicate that businesses being shut down by COVID-19 would have an easy time collecting under their business interruption coverages, including civil authority coverage, Shannon received much criticism from policyholder attorneys for her views.
Continue Reading Do Not Miss Analysis of Civil Authority Coverage at the First Party Claims Conference

Safety is first. But that is not the course of affairs when dealing with insurance company adjusters who usually say that they will not include the costs of legally required safe construction practices because their managers will not allow those costs.
Continue Reading Insurance Companies Should Be Accountable For Not Including Legally Required Costs Of Safe Construction

Rhode Island Priest Giving Pre-Race Blessing For Crew of Merlin (click image to view video)

Rhode Island appraisals are treated very similar to Florida appraisals. The general rule is that unless the claim is denied for coverage, the parties must go to appraisal if it is demanded. Insurers seeking to avoid appraisal need to specifically indicate why the dispute is subject to a coverage denial and must be litigated.
Continue Reading What Property Insurance Claims Can Go To Appraisal In Rhode Island?

Joey Childress and Chip Merlin at the 2019 First Party Claims Conference West

Joey Childress of Childress Engineering Services from Richardson, Texas, was attending the First Party Claims Conference in Marina Del Rey, California. He came up to me and showed a video and photographs of an extreme hailstorm hitting the greater Dallas Fort Worth area.

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Continue Reading Hail Storms and Hail Damage Assessment—Policyholders Should Be Safe and Call Professionals to Do Roof Inspections

Chip Merlin & Jeff Major

Insurance estimating expert Jeff Major gave one of the best speeches about Xactimate I have ever seen at the First Party Claims Conference West. I have seen Jeff give a number of presentations over the years, even teaching federal judges, magistrates, and mediators following Superstorm Sandy. But his warning about getting an insurance company’s “turkey dinner” Xactimate construction estimate is his latest masterpiece.
Continue Reading Explaining Xactimate Accuracy and the Need to Analyze Details Before Getting the Wrong Turkey Dinner From the Insurance Company Estimator