A roofing contractor called Stonewater Roofing, Ltd. (Stonewater) challenged a Texas statute regulating public adjusters' conduct on the basis that the statute violates free speech and due process rights under the First and...more
Assumption of the Risk- Smith v. Be Fit with Michelle, LLC, 11th Dist. Lake, No. 2023-Ohio-3118. In this appeal, the Eleventh Appellate District affirmed the trial court’s decision to grant the defendant summary judgment...more
The communities of Southwest Florida suffered a catastrophic blow in September of 2022 when Hurricane Ian decimated so much in its path. Now Hurricane Idalia brings yet another set of challenges to Southwest Floridians, who...more
In a recent decision by the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the court interpreted Illinois law and clarified the rights and obligations of owners, their insurers and public adjusters in the situation in which the...more
We bring you our March Insurance Update. As college basketball programs embark on the road to the final four, we select our top four insurance cases from the past month. In a dispute over the priority of coverage, the...more
On July 11, 2021 Chief Judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida entered an order enjoining the Secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation from taking...more
The Florida Legislature recently passed numerous pieces of legislation which impact Florida’s property insurance carriers. Specifically, Senate Bill 76 (“SB 76”) and Senate Bill 1598 (“SB 1598”) were enacted. Governor...more
Is it possible for a public adjuster to be considered disinterested in the outcome of a case, yet get paid based on the outcome of that same case? Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal says yes, for now! ...more
New York Court Reaffirms That Contractor’s Defective Work Is Not A Covered “Occurrence” Anthony and Sandra Tamer hired RD Rice Construction (“Rice”) as a general contractor to gut and rebuild their combined residential...more
One practice that has plagued the insurance industry in recent years has been contractors soliciting homeowners to make insurance claims after a hailstorm, for example, and then obtaining an assignment of rights to the claim...more
Florida courts continue to refine the roles and limitations of appraisers in Florida property claims. Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal recently held that a public adjuster cannot serve as a disinterested appraiser...more
First-party property policies typically include appraisal provisions requiring each party to appoint a “disinterested” or “impartial” appraiser. A Florida appellate court recently addressed the question of what makes a...more
The natural abundance of salt and moisture combined with the devastating power of Hurricane Irma produced a torrent of insurance claims. Florida law incentivizes hungry adjusters to get creative and a second wave of claims is...more
It is not unusual for an insurance adjuster to arrive at a new loss to find that the insured has already hired a public adjuster and the public adjuster’s retained remediation company has started to clean up the site. ...more
When an insured suffers a loss, they sometimes do not have the resources up front to make the repairs to their property. In many states, an insured can hire a contractor to perform the work in exchange for a post-loss...more
Florida House Bill 911, “An Act Relating to Insurance Adjusters” became law on January 1, 2018. In large part, the new legislation deals with the internal operation of public adjusting firms....more
Hurricane Nate made landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast near the city of Biloxi on Sunday, October 8, 2017, as a Category 1 Hurricane. The eastern quadrant of the storm’s center also passed over significant portions of...more
Dear Public Adjustor: I’m often proud of my dad, like when he stood up to the PTA about The Catcher in the Rye. But lately he has me worried. He’s sacrificed an entire season’s corn crop to build a ballfield in the...more
Disputes between the insured and its public adjuster (PA) are frequently contentious and have the unfortunate potential to draw the carrier into litigation. A perfect example is last week’s decision in Public Adj. Bur., Inc....more
Somewhere in Texas at this very moment a public adjuster is knocking on the door of a home or business owner offering to inspect the roof for wind or hail damage and assist with the submission of an insurance claim. It is...more
Those familiar with the issues faced by insurers in Texas first-party insurance claims, particularly in the realm of hail damage claims, are undoubtedly aware of what has been labeled the "Progressive Claim Syndrome.” In a...more
Obvious to anyone in the insurance industry, Texas courts are experiencing an explosion of first-party property insurance lawsuits arising from wind and hail related insurance claims. Dozens of lawsuits are filed every day in...more
In Lee v. California Capital Insurance Co. (No. A136280; filed 6/18/15), a California Court of Appeal held that it was error for an appraisal panel to assign loss values to items simply because they were listed in the...more
A recent federal District Court decision from Indiana, Autumn Glen Homeowners Ass’n. v. Travelers Ind. Co. of America, 2015 WL 1256391, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33317 (S.D. Ind., Mar. 18, 2015) provides insight into both...more
In This Issue: - Court of Appeals of Michigan: Trial Court’s Incorrect Instruction on the Definition of Bad Faith Did Not Require Reversal - District of Colorado: Insureds Have No Obligation To Hire Public...more