Gordon & Rees’ team of experienced lawyers are here to help insurers address and meet the claims handling challenges resulting from Hurricane Ian. With offices in Tampa and Miami and attorneys throughout the state, our lawyers have assisted clients with the unique issues presented by other catastrophes, including Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Irma, and Hurricane Michael. Our team has the experience and resources necessary to provide your claims department and individual claims professionals with the support necessary to manage a catastrophic claims volume promptly, efficie ..read more

Ever since the Washington Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Cedell v. Farmers Insurance Company of Washington, 176 Wn.2d 686, 295 P.3d 239 (2013), insurance coverage attorneys have been struggling to define the exact parameters of the Cedell ruling in order to safeguard the attorney-client privilege as to the communications between the insurer and its counsel.  As a brief background, the Washington Supreme Court held in Cedell that there is a presumption of no attorney-client privilege in a lawsuit involving bad faith claims handling.  However, an insurer can overcome the presumption ..read more

Oregon has for years been well known as a jurisdiction that generally does not recognize “bad faith” claims against insurers. This is because the Oregon courts have long suggested that such a tort claim by an insured generally exists only where the insurer has a “special relationship” with its insured, beyond the mere existence of an insurance policy. Such a relationship arises, for example, where the insurer agrees to defend its insured in a lawsuit brought by a third party. Unless that special relationship exists between the insured and insurer, the Oregon courts historically have limited an ..read more

The Washington State Supreme Court recently issued a decision that clarified whether a bicyclist is a “pedestrian” for purposes of personal injury protection (“PIP”) coverage. McLaughlin v. Travelers Commercial Ins. Co., 476 P.3d 1032 (2020). The case involved an accident whereby a parked motorist opened his car door and hit McLaughlin while he was riding a bicycle, resulting in injury. Travelers insured McLaughlin under an auto policy that provided up to $5,000 in MedPay coverage, which provides payments for injuries to an insured similar to PIP. Travelers issued the policy to McLaughlin when ..read more

The Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner (the “OIC”) has issued a new regulation, WAC 284-30-770, which mandates that insurers include specific advisory language in “adverse notifications” sent to insureds. Beginning on August 1, 2020, insurers will be required to include the mandatory language in any notice, statement, or document, wherein the insurer denies a claim, issues final payment for less than the amount of the claim submitted, makes an adverse benefit determination, or rescinds, terminates, cancels, or does not renew a policy. In any such notice, the insurer must inc ..read more

Despite first party insurance policies generally requiring cooperation from an insured in the investigation of a claim, insurers can no longer rely on the failure to cooperate as a defense in a claim for first party insurance benefits in Colorado unless certain conditions are met. The Bill: On July 2, 2020, Colorado Governor Jared S. Polis signed House Bill 20-1290 which addresses the ability of an insurer to use a failure to cooperate defense in an action where the insured has made a claim for benefits under an insurance policy. This bill bars an insurer from raising the failure to cooperate ..read more

Two Napa-based restaurants and a number of Chicago-area businesses claiming economic losses from closing their doors to prevent the spread of COVID-19 filed suits in California and Illinois, respectively, late last week. The plaintiffs in the Illinois suit allege statutory bad faith based, in part, on a memorandum setting forth the insurance company’s views on coverage and an alleged failure to investigate. The owners of French Laundry, a prominent restaurant in Napa, California and another Napa establishment owned by prominent restauranteur Thomas Keller filed suit in Napa County Superior Cou ..read more

Is a cash register that is not being used damaged property? When you need to wash a table, a chair, or a section of flooring with readily available cleaning products to make them safe and useable, are you repairing damaged property? Is a spilled cup of coffee waiting to be wiped up actual damage to the premises? If your customers stay home to help stop the spread of a virus, has there been a physical loss inside your shuttered store or restaurant? The insuring agreements typically found in commercial property insurance policies require “direct physical loss of or damage to” covered property as ..read more

The only thing equally inevitable to the spread of the novel coronavirus 2019 disease (“COVID-19”) will be the resulting onslaught of first-party and third-party insurance claims and insurance coverage litigation seeking to mitigate business losses through recoveries from the insurance industry. Prominent policyholder firms are already pitching corporate America to seek coverage first and ask questions later. The immediacy of claims and litigation will be expedited and their impact multiplied because of the economic downturn. Policy language and actual coverage will be subject to sustained att ..read more

On behalf of Gordon & Rees’ surplus lines insurer client, Hartford insurance coverage attorneys Dennis Brown, Joseph Blyskal, and Regen O’Malley, with the assistance of associates Kelcie Reid, Alexandria McFarlane, and Justyn Stokely, and Maine counsel Lauren Thomas, secured a full dismissal of a $15 million commercial property loss claim before the Maine Business and Consumer Court on January 23, 2020. The insured, a wood pellet manufacturer, sustained catastrophic fire loss to its plant in 2018 – just one day after its surplus lines policy expired. Following the insurer’s declinat ..read more