Flood Basics still causing pain for some
Climate-Proofing Our Infrastructure: Building Climate Resilience with the Army Corps of Engineers
The Calm Before and After the Storm: How to Maximize Insurance Recovery for Catastrophic Weather Events
Law Brief®: David Pfeffer and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Legal Implications of Infrastructure Collapses
Employer Responsibilities During the Texas Winter Storm
Filing Insurance Claims After the Texas Winter Storm
Hurricane Season Begins
Great Lakes Insurance SE v. Concourse Plaza A Condominium Ass’n, 22-13141, 11th Cir., Apr. 15, 2024 - In this unpublished opinion, the Eleventh Circuit was presented with the issue of whether Florida Statute § 627.70132...more
Florida Farm Bureau General Insurance Company v. Linda Williams, 5D23-0183 (Fla. 5th DCA, Apr. 9, 2024) - In this case, Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeals addresses proper application of a hurricane deductible. The...more
Florida Farm Bureau General Insurance Company v. Richard and Nancy Jones; Florida 5th DCA, 5D23-0376 - Florida Farm Bureau General Insurance Company (Farm Bureau) appealed an order granting summary judgment in favor of the...more
Submitting a proof of loss using a carrier’s approved proof of loss form may be a mandatory post-loss obligation when invoking appraisal in commercial claims. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida...more
After heavy rains on March 30, 2024, a section of the southbound lane of famous Highway 1, which sits atop dramatic cliffs near Big Sur, collapsed and crumbled into the Pacific Ocean. The incident occurred near Rocky Creek...more
The cost of construction insurance in Florida is having developers second-guess their willingness to invest in the Sunshine State, while business leaders are growing concerned that higher insurance costs may slow Florida’s...more
Chapter 542 of the Texas Insurance Code, also known as the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act (“TPPCA”), generally allows an insured to recover interest and attorneys’ fees, in addition to the amount of the insurance claim,...more
Storm reports are one of the most utilized tools in forensic storm damage assessments for insurance claims and litigation following a weather event. These reports are generally published by the National Weather Service and...more
Property insurance policies are complex legal contracts. That’s because the insurance industry has its own language and processes that can be subject to multiple interpretations. ...more
In late September, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida and traveled across the state. The storm brought with it significant storm surge that caused substantial flooding. The storm also was accompanied by...more
The adjustment of hurricane claims sometimes involve discrete issues regarding either special coverages under insurance policies or different types of structures governed by a patchwork of federal and state laws....more
The United States federal court system periodically publishes reports (called “Just the Facts”) addressing trends facing the federal judiciary. On November 16, 2021, the U.S. Courts released its latest “Just the Facts,”...more
Hail damage is so typical in Texas that Chapter 542A of the Texas Insurance Code is known as the “Hail Bill.” Texas follows the concurrent cause doctrine. As the Texas Supreme Court held in Lyons v. Millers Casualty...more
On September 27, 2021, Judge Jose Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida granted summary judgment in favor of Scottsdale Insurance Company in LMP Holdings Inc. v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., case...more
In a timely reaffirmation of the Fifth Circuit’s 2007 ruling in Leonard v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., a Louisiana federal court recently upheld the application of an insurance policy’s Anti-Concurrent Causation Clause (“ACC”)...more
Flood exclusions may not apply when floods are preceded by winds strong enough to independently cause the loss, according to a recent decision issued by the Western District of Louisiana. In Doxey v. Aegis Security Ins. Co.,...more
A Florida appellate court recently made clear that the issue of insurance coverage can remain in dispute, even where an insurer has already paid out some benefits to an insured in connection with a claim. Avatar Prop. & Cas....more
Florida Statute §627.70132 allows an insured to make a claim for an alleged hurricane loss within three years of the event. This statute, however, is not a waiver of the insured’s initial burden of proof to establish...more
For an incredible 10-day period in mid-February, Texas was battered by a brutal winter storm bringing snow, ice, and record-low temperatures. Millions of Texans were without power and water for days. These conditions forced...more
The Florida Third District Court of Appeal recently ruled that an insurer did not waive its right to appraisal after choosing to cover only part of a property damage loss claimed by its insured. The case, People’s Tr. Ins....more
On Oct. 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is set to hear oral arguments in Pearson v. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company. The case centers on statutory construction of Chapters 542 and 542A of the...more
Policyholders attorneys often try to skip the threshold steps of bringing their client’s claim within coverage and allocating between covered and non-covered causes of loss. Instead, the policyholder attorney would have the...more
When the National Weather Service names a storm heading in your direction, you know to expect wind and water. This can create a quandary for property insurers. Is water damage from a named windstorm caused by the flood or the...more
This article follows on from a series of previous articles seeking to address climate change litigation in the context of insurance and reinsurance. Three different, but important, decisions in December 2019 have once again...more
In Knickerbocker Village Inc. v. Lexington Insurance Co., New York’s Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, dictated a clear rule for single-insured cases regarding the discovery of an insurer’s treatment of insurance...more