Florida Insurance Law Blog

The media and politicians tell us about a financial crisis, a terrorism crisis, a debt crisis, a crisis of confidence, blah, blah, blah.

I spent some time today in one of the foreclosure divisions in the Palm Beach County courthouse. We have recently filed several class actions dealing with the massive overcharging of force placed insurance policies. Here's a link to an excellent news story about force placed insurance: http://money.msn.com/money-video?vid=3d0229ae-bd3a-d97b-573d-b568aa0b6ac1

It's sad, an army of lawyers representing the banks and mortgage companies, and folks losing their homes, and the paper trail is no where. The overcharging and overreaching is status quo.

I think what we really have is a "Justice Crisis", where underfunded, and understaffed courts are trying to cope with a mass of corporate wrongdoing, with virtually no penalty. After all, other than Madoff and a very few individuals, the Government doesn't seem interested in prosecuting these corporate criminals. I imagine that it is poor politics to prosecute the corporate donors...

This brings to mind a quote from a 19th Century U.S. Senator, talking about corporations 150 years ago:

"Corporations are formed to do what individuals would be ashamed to do"

More to follow next week.

Maybe because of inertia, maybe because it is easy, maybe because we simply don't put 2 & 2 together, folks do things the same old way, even if that way is not the best way. This past Friday, Felix Salmon, at Reuters, posted this blog post: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/11/19/can-legal-due-process-move-online/

It seems that almost every day in USA Today, there are several Class Action notices, filled with way too much, and too little information about a Class Action. It's like the old Pogo cartoon: "We have met the enemy, and he is us!".

A Class Action is a procedural device to permit usually small claims to be litigated together so that small wrongs, sometimes called "small frauds" can be vindicated. Felix Salmon's blog post, in turn, links to this terrific Caveat Emptor blog post: http://caveatemptorblog.com/class-action-attorneys-give-up-over-1-billion-in-claims-for-20000/

Class Action lawyers have a fiduciary duty to the members of the class, both named class members as well as unnamed class members. We take that duty very seriously. It's always better to do things the right way, even if it may be, in the short term, less profitable.

Since 2005 we, and our, co-counsel Scott Johni, Phil Burlington, and Kent Whittemore, have been litigating a Class Action against Heritage Propane.

Our client, Mr. Williams, entered into a contract with Peoples Gas in 1996. After 9 years... and 5 years after Peoples Gas had been merged into Heritage Propane... he received an invoice for Propane Tank Rent. He protested to Heritage Propane without success, and we filed suit that year.

I am happy to announce that the Judge recently certified our Class Action.

If we are successful on the merits of the case, it may mean that thousands of Florida former Peoples Gas customers who Heritage Propane began charging Propane Tank rent may be entitled to recover that money back, and they won't continue to be charged tank rent.

If you'd like to read and learn more, here is the link to our website, where you can read the Williams v Heritage Propane complaint, as well as the Court order Certifying the Class: http://www.liggiolaw.com/lawyer-attorney-1440071.html

It's been some time since I posted on this Blog, and I apologize for that. We've been just a little busy with some of our ongoing bad faith suits and class actions. I'll certainly try to do better.

There was something in the media today that I think is very important reading.

To put things in context: While the Florida property /homeowners insurers make it extremely difficult for any homeowner who has the temerity to make a claim, and while they are asking the legislature to remove any restraints on their rates, this is what they actually do with the premiums paid by Florida homeowners: http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100315/ARTICLE/3141081/2107/BUSINESS&Title=How-insurers-make-millions-on-the-side&tc=ar&template=printpicart

In our Class Action practice, we want to know if the Defendant company has D&O or E&O insurance?

D&O insurance is important to us for several reasons:
1) Is the insurance company providing the defense lawyers, and paying those lawyers?
2) Is there insurance coverage for our suit?
3) Is the D&O insurer denying coverage?

In a recent successful Class Action that we handled, the D&O carrier had denied coverage to the insurance company that we were in suit with, by msicharecterizing what our lawsuit was about, and what relief we were seeking.

Aside from the fact that I was personally insulted! (not really!) The D&O carrier's denial of coverage impaired our ability to reach a fair settlement on behalf of the Class.

We did settle, and I agreed to be a witness in the subsequent covarage lawsuit that the insurance company defendant filed against the D&O carrier, which was resolved favorably as a result.

In these uncertain times and claims of corpoate and insurance company malfeasance, you need to be aware of the availability of D&O or E&O coverage, and whether that carrier is indeed covering the claim. Also if you or your company is threatened with a claim, one of your first steps is to report the claim to your D&O or E&O carrier, and be agressive in pursuing the coverage that you purchased to protect you.