Winter, spring, summer, fire season, and fall – as Californians, we have all become accustomed to a fifth season – fire season. Even worse, fire season was once confined to just a few months, but now is a threat for most of...more
Smoke taint has dominated the worries of the California wine industry recent years. With unsettled climate conditions and continued droughts, there is no reason to think that smoke taint will not continue to be a significant...more
The Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) policy was introduced in 2014 to provide farmers a new, more flexible risk management tool. Unlike traditional multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) policies, the WFRP policy provides...more
Recent wildfires in California Wine Country, particularly those that devastated parts of Napa and Sonoma counties in October 2017, have focused attention on whether insurance covers smoke taint damage to grapes and wine. ...more
In early August, hemp farmers in central Oregon confronted a dilemma that every crop farmer fears. Severe thunderstorms – showering golf ball-sized hail – rolled through nearly five hundred acres of farmland, severely...more
In a recent dispute involving a crop insurance policy, the Texas Supreme Court held that an independent insurance agency could not compel arbitration of certain claims brought against it in state court by an insured (JJ...more
The legalization of cannabis in many states is helping the industry to become mainstream and gain access to insurance products taken for granted in other economic sectors. But there is still a long way to go until the...more
The plaintiff, a farming company, demanded arbitration against Diversified Crop Insurance Services over the nonpayment of federally reinsured claims....more
Some guiding principles, taken from decades of experience representing insurance policyholders in California and around the globe - The Wine Country fires, and the uncertainty of their cause, may complicate insurance...more
On September 20, a federal district court in the District of Columbia dismissed a lawsuit brought by reinsurers of the federal crop insurance program. The plaintiffs-reinsurers alleged that the Federal Crop Insurance...more