Merlin The Moose is a client favorite at the Chicago Merlin Law Group office. We won him at a charity auction last year. He also led me to some creative research uncovering a problem with market conduct studies and the transparency of property insurance claims procedures many insurers keep hidden from their customers and insurance regulators.
Continue Reading Property Insurance Claims Procedures Should Be Transparent and Uncovered in Market Conduct Studies
In a recent op-ed article published in the Star Ledger, Rutgers Law Professor Jay Feinman debunked the myth that insurance companies have been using for decades to prevent good faith claims handling bills from passing through the legislature. As Feinman noted, insurance companies argue that the Insurance Fair Conduct Act (IFCA) is unnecessary and would be harmful, suggesting the bill would dramatically raise insurance premiums.
Continue Reading Rutgers Law Professor Debunks Notion of Increased Premiums With New Jersey Fair Conduct Act
Insurance companies routinely argue for immunity from their wrongful actions because acts of their customers are not perfect following a loss. Policyholders are not claims specialists. Policyholders generally are not in the insurance claims business much less the civil litigation business which the insurance industry is the number one participant by far.
Continue Reading Insurance Companies Must Perform in Good Faith Regardless of Their Customer’s Imperfect Actions
Unlike many other jurisdictions, under Kansas law, an aggrieved insured cannot file a lawsuit against its insurer for “bad faith” as it is not a recognized tort in first-party claims.1 Note that Kansas still recognizes “bad faith” in the third-party context.2
Continue Reading Kansas Law on Bad Faith and the Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing
As we have toured around the country, we have seen states that are very protective of policyholders through extensive claim handling guidelines. Others have very few regulations. While Connecticut has a statute barring unfair claims practices, it is actually an example of the latter.
Continue Reading Claims Handling Requirements by State – Connecticut
Insurance Companies can breach the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by failing to pursue adjustment of the claim with reasonable diligence. This means that both insured and insurance companies must pay close attention to the company’s diligence (or lack thereof) in handling a claim.
Continue Reading Dilatory Claims Handling Alone Can Constitute “Bad Faith” by the Insurer in California
Enservio’s director of training, Scott Petlewski, wrote an article Establishing Value on Contents Claims: 3 Bad Habits to Break, which demonstrates that proper contents adjustment is hard work. It can be time consuming, expensive from a labor standpoint, and fraught with error.
Continue Reading Contents Adjustment is Tedious Hard Work
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?
Hope every mom had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I was at the Tampa Club yesterday with my mother, Alice Merlin.
Continue Reading The Mother’s Day Storm of Insurance Claim Denials
All estimates of damage, including draft estimates of damage made by adjusters, have been ordered to be produced in a Superstorm Sandy flood damage case.1 Typically, insurance company flood attorneys have made the same arguments they made regarding drafts of engineering reports—“We and our clients do not have them, judge."