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Jim Beck, Georgia Insurance Commissioner

I had barely finished my speech with Nicole Vinson at the Georgia Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (GAPIA) Spring Conference this morning when news broke that Jim Beck, Georgia’s Insurance Commissioner had been indicted in a 38-count criminal complaint for a fraudulent scheme involving insurance inspections and invoices. It alleged that Beck, a former insurance company lobbyist and executive, embezzled more than $2 million, used a Christian group in the scheme, and that some of the money went to his campaign.…
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Anita Taff and Chip Merlin

Anita Taff and the entire GAPIA public adjuster Board of Directors should be congratulated for their success. I have the pleasure and the frustration of being in many different geographic areas where public adjuster organizations are having difficulties maintaining cohesiveness within their ranks. This is a…

I recently came across an interesting opinion, Fuller v. Mercury Insurance Company of Georgia,1 where the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals discussed the effect of a guilty plea on a policyholder’s civil action against their insurance carrier. The opinion stemmed from a residential fire loss and the insured’s subsequent claim for benefits under her homeowner’s insurance policy.…
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We’ll let the jury decide.

Policyholders must meet post-loss obligations under their property insurance policy prior to receiving coverage for a loss. A common condition precedent requires policyholders to provide prompt notice of the loss to their carrier. The carrier must be able to conduct a reasonable investigation of the property conditions as close to the loss date as possible to determine whether the stated event caused the loss claimed.…
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