Hurricane Michael policyholders, public adjusters, contractors and agents must check their policies to make certain that there is not a one-year deadline to start arbitration. The above photo is Lloyds at London. Lloyds is a place where surplus lines insurers do business and it is not an insurance company. Many of the Lloyds Underwriters have placed obscure arbitration provisions into their policies which mandate that New York law with a one-year limitation to start the arbitration.

AmRisk is one of these horrible insurance surplus lines programs. But all Hurricane Michael claims should be checked to see if it contains such a clause because the one-year deadline is less than two months away.

We have spoken to many agents who did not know that the polices they sold contained the clause. There was no warning and often the surplus lines brokers never indicated that the policies they provided had such an anti-policyholder provision. Those agents selling those horrible policies were often duped, but they should at least let their customers know about the upcoming deadlines. New York law is simply bad and Florida policyholders will not be entitled to as many legal remedies as New York provides—that is why these sneaky insurers placed the arbitration clause with New York law applying into the policy.

I have warned about this previously with more detail in:

https://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2019/03/articles/insurance/arbitration-clause-requiring-new-york-law-and-new-york-arbitration-cited-as-avoidance-of-florida-lawsuit-another-instance-of-surplus-lines-insurer-abuse-in-florida/

https://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2019/03/articles/insurance/surplus-lines-carriers-select-arbitration-and-choice-of-law-in-new-york-to-pay-less-coverage-and-less-on-claims/

https://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2019/05/articles/insurance/arbitration-provision-in-insurance-policy-applies-because-federal-arbitration-act-supersedes-state-law-making-such-clauses-illegal/

Arbitration is not appraisal. You have to hire attorneys, and they must have a New York license to arbitrate in New York. If you need help or have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 813.229.1000 or on my cell at 813.695.8733. Yes, I have a New York license.

Thought For The Day

Conflicts of interest’ arise when you’re not – when you’re sneaky about it, when you’re shady about it, when you’re not transparent about it. If you tell everyone, ‘Here’s what’s going on. Here’s the process; here are the people that are playing a role’ – that’s being transparent.
—Sean Spicer