Many readers know that yours truly was appointed as the insurance coverage counsel for the class of victims at the Champlain Towers collapse in Surfside, Florida. A settlement was announced in open court yesterday for nearly a billion dollars. I am certain the final amount of insurance coverage recovered will be over one billion dollars—all within a year from the catastrophe.
I want that to sink in with readers of this blog—a settlement of a billion dollars, and disputed liability and damage was reached well within one year of a catastrophe, the cause of which is still in debate. So why can’t we get this type of adjustment promptness on more mundane property insurance claims?
Shortly before the court announced the settlement, I was finishing a friendly debate at the Lloyd’s of London Property Insurance Claims Group. One of my points of emphasis in the last question posed was that the role of the property claims adjuster after a loss is to get the money owed from the treasury of the insurance company into the hands of the insurance customer as soon as possible.
All of us need to remember that promptness of payment is important because part of the social role of insurance is to provide the peace of mind that a financial loss will be softened by the prompt payment of insurance.
I will write more about the Lloyd’s presentation with Steve Badger tomorrow.
I want to acknowledge how much time and effort Merlin Law Group attorney Shane Smith and my assistant Tiffany Rodriguez played in helping me provide multiple coverage opinions and advice to our co-counsel. The result is extraordinary when thinking about the circumstances and the quickness of the agreed-to settlements.
Thought For The Day
A billion dollars isn’t what it used to be.
—Nelson Bunker Hunt
