For some property owners, the answer is you do not. However, in many cases, adding an experienced insurance coverage attorney to your team can return significant results. Whether the claim has been entirely denied or seriously underpaid, in many instances we can help significantly increase our clients’ insurance payments owed under their policies.
A few cases on point illustrate this:
• Case #1 – In a large industrial fire, the difference between the insurer’s payment and the claim value was significant. Once counsel got involved, filed a federal lawsuit, and forced the insurer to appraise the loss, the claim payment increased over $9,000,000.
• Case #2 – On a large tornado loss, the insurer’s estimate and the contractor’s estimate differed by over $700,000, and the insurance carrier refused to budge. Once counsel got involved, demanded appraisal and represented the client at the hearing, the claim payment on the dwelling increased over $600,000.
• Case #3 – Again on a large tornado loss, the insurance claims adjuster originally denied all coverage for all the embedded glass throughout this large estate. Upon hiring us to conduct a policy review and negotiate the claim, the insured eventually recovered all of their costs to remove the embedded glass under their debris removal coverage and to repair their landscape under the separate coverage for landscape damage and additional damages for their lost contents and other structures. No lawsuit was needed once we were able to review the policy and negotiate directly with the adjuster to explain the error in the policy interpretation. This client is very happy with the over $700,000 in additional proceeds our strategy returned without the need for a lawsuit.
• Case #4 – The insurer denied the claim in its entirety trying to impose upon the HOA a statute of limitations in their policy which was inconsistent with Minnesota law. The Court agreed with our legal position that the limitation was unenforceable and now this large loss commercial claim is headed to appraisal.
• Case #5 – The umpire on an appraisal panel behaved improperly by considering evidence outside the scope of appraisal, resulting in a $0 award for our client. We challenged the umpire’s improper conduct, got a new appraisal ordered and the client is now entitled to over $100,000 in insurance proceeds to repair their commercial building.
• Case #6 – The insurer actually accused our HOA client of fraud in the procurement of the policy seeking to avoid its obligations to pay for storm damage repairs. Once we got involved and mounted an aggressive push back on the insupportable fraud allegations, filed a counterclaim and demanded appraisal, the insurer backtracked and paid the claim in full including accrued interest.
Sometimes you have to stick up for your rights when faced with a catastrophic insurance loss. If you have any insurance claim questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
