Category: Insurance Problems

Brian Malone is an 8th generation Royalist Descendant Bahamian. He is one of my best friends who understands my love for completive sailboat racing and runs Merlin Yacht Racing. His family home in Hope Town was destroyed last year from Hurricane Dorian’s 185 MPH winds. His parents and family are now displaced, along with thousands… Continue Reading

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Trying to explain to people why they have to consider getting professional help and self-educate themselves about insurance coverage and benefits after a disaster is one of the reasons I wrote Pay Up! I was thinking about this last night while being told of a Nashville policyholder with a significant property loss involving multiple properties… Continue Reading

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In reviewing policies, I have noticed a scary trend for policyholders: Insurance companies are often making changes to policy language limiting insureds coverage or ability to recover when renewing the policy. If you are like many policyholders when you get your renewal every year and the declarations page shows that your limits went up and… Continue Reading

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The Consumer Federation of America and New York’s Law School’s Center For Justice and Democracy issued a study today, How the Cash Rich Insurance Industry Fakes Crises and Invents Social Inflation. I would suggest readers read this study and also consider my post from last week, How Playing the Float, Taking Depreciation on Labor or… Continue Reading

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Depreciation of labor when determining actual cash value is being raised in cases throughout the country with mixed results. In, Tennessee Tornado Terror and The Insurance Claim Aftermath, I noted that Tennessee recently ruled labor will not be deprecated for tornado policyholders. So, what would be the result if those tornados had gone slightly east… Continue Reading

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Property Damage attorneys will occasionally run into dispositive motions filed by Insurance Company attorneys looking to dismiss the lawsuit based on the following language from the policy’s loss settlement provision: We will pay no more than the actual cash value of the damage until actual repair or replacement is complete The insurance company will cite… Continue Reading

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Many insurance policies have a one-year suit limitation clause, which precludes the policyholder from suing for breach of contract after the one-year period has passed.1 In West Beach Condominium v. Commonwealth Insurance Company (“West Beach”),2 the Court of Appeals of Washington was asked whether under Washington Law an insurance policy one-year suit limitation clause barred… Continue Reading

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Merlin Law Group attorney Etienne Font lives in Tennessee and Jeff Carter still works and has significant family relationships in Nashville. We were talking about tornado destruction, which has such little warning and is one of the most terrifying weather events for those in the path. Now, the cleanup and insurance recovery begins. Interestingly, Tennessee… Continue Reading

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On February 14, 2020, the Iowa Supreme Court dismissed the case of 33 Carpenters Construction, Inc., (“33 Carpenters”) against State Farm Life and Casualty Company (“State Farm”).1 33 Carpenters approached the insureds after a hailstorm to see if they would allow them to inspect their roof. 33 Carpenters found hail damage and entered into a… Continue Reading

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Matt Morgan is running for the Texas legislature. He won the first primary on March 2 with 49.7% of the vote. He almost won without a runoff. This is Matt’s biography: ‘My great-grandparents, my mom, and my sister were all Texas educators. Serving others is in my family’s DNA, and that makes me very proud.’… Continue Reading

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