I’m running at least 2 days behind in replying due to the volume of recent emails to my earning04 account. Simply put people from across the country are taking notice and beginning to “c it”. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to write.
sop
Day: July 23, 2009
On last night’s episode of The Ascent of Money: An Interview with Dickie Scruggs in “Risky Business”
Niall covered insurance in depth and in ways that I thought were simply excellent. He also completely debunks the notion held dear by our own insurance Commish that the private markets can handle any sort of large scale catastrophe (it really doesn’t handle the small scale kind very well after all). While Niall covered various solutions all had problems including unbridled faith in what Editilla calls the invisible hand. It was an hour very well spent as we traveled from Chile to the Mississippi Coast.
Those wanting to catch up can watch last night’s episode in full here.
Warning: If you are an insurance industry type with a heart problem or take medication to get an erection please consult your doctor before watching.
sop
Tennessee US Representative Marsha Blackburn, Welcome to Slabbed
Let’s agree that we’re going to have PAYGO enforcement. That we’re not going to cry ’emergency’ every time we have a Katrina, every time we have a Tsunami, every time we have a need for extra spending, that we don’t go call for a special appropriation that allows us to circumvent the PAYGO rules.
Of course Marsha, does this also apply when the New Madrid fault again snaps and levels Memphis? I’m told (reliably I believe) anti concurrent causation does apply in earthquakes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_xnUVrJx1I]
(hattip to a reader and the Media Matters Action Network)
Slabbed Daily July 22-24. Lets tie a few things together
There have been a good number of news tidbits that do not necessarily constitute a post here on Slabbed on their own but when taken together tie up several loose ends and lend context to a story that does merit it’s own post in Mike Chaney’s recent insurance forum held last Thursday and Friday here on the coast. So let’s backtrack a week and shake us up slabbed insurance cocktail by beginning with Anita Lee’s coverage of day 2:
Gov. Haley Barbour joined the coastal insurance debate Friday, telling an audience he believes regional compacts would be the best way to regulate wind coverage in coastal zones from Texas to Maine.
Barbour introduced The Travelers Insurance Cos. president, Brian MacLean, to explain the company’s proposal for improving the coast insurance market. Insurers have pulled back from coastlines in recent years, leaving state-run wind pools to fill the void.
Wind pools were intended as insurers of last resort, but their market shares have grown to levels that experts agree are unsustainable. Insurance works by spreading risk, not concentrating it.
Haley has been conspicuously absent from the insurance scene refusing to comment on the litigation while offering cheap lip service to Gene Taylor’s multi peril bill. I suspect he and the State GOP has been searching for a way to throw a bone to the people on the coast that helped elect him while working hard to preserve GOP big business bonafides with the campaign money machine that is big insurance. Continue reading “Slabbed Daily July 22-24. Lets tie a few things together”
Henry and June and the Topic of State Farm’s Cancerous Claims Handling: A Kuehn v State Farm Update (Updated)
Far from the claims handling equivalent of this literary masterpiece, the case of Kuehn v State Farm has more twists, turns and legal perversions than Anaïs Nin’s book on the writing of that literary masterpiece. We’ve presented this case on Slabbed in part to highlight the bad faith methods State Farm, with the help of the Mississippi Department of Insurance, utilized to adjust their slab claims on the coast after Katrina. Kuehn was also of interest because it gave us a chance to also highlight the type of lawyer State Farm uses to abuse the process in the proverbial “hired gun lawyer” in this case Oxford Mississippi based lawyers Scot Spragins and Lucky Tucker. On Monday of this week Nowdy profiled the fine mess the dufuses found themselves in after the plaintiff’s lawyer Earl Denham made them his beetch
. Anita Lee covered the evidentiary hearing and frankly it doesn’t look good for Spragins or Tucker as State Farm had to take one for the team to save their hides (from being DQ’d as counsel) in the process laying bare their sleazy claims practices and the type of lawyer that will do anything (and I mean anything) to get on State Farm’s legal gravy train.
State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. argued in federal court Wednesday that the company should not have to pay policyholders $174,811.80 for Katrina damage attributed to wind because an umpire and two appraisers who set the amount strayed into determining the cause of loss.
State Farm policies give policyholders the option of appraisal when “the amount of the loss” is in dispute. Under Mississippi law, U.S. District Court Judge L.T. Senter Jr. has already ruled, appraisal is not meant to decide liability. State Farm polices cover wind damage, but loss from water is covered by federal flood insurance.
However, attorneys for policyholders Henry and June Kuehn of Ocean Springs presented evidence that only wind damage was considered during the appraisal process.
As provided under the policy, each side selected an appraiser and an umpire was appointed to resolve any disputes.
State Farm’s appraiser, John Minor, testified that only those damages above the water line were included in the appraisal award. The water line reached 2 feet onto the second floor of the Kuehn home.
Minor said a State Farm attorney who had offered confusing advice during the appraisal process was not happy with the result.
“I got chewed out,” Minor said.
He said he handled the Kuehn appraisal in the same way he did others for State Farm, but the attorney, Lawrence J. “Lucky” Tucker Jr., seemed to want the Kuehn appraisal handled differently. Continue reading “Henry and June and the Topic of State Farm’s Cancerous Claims Handling: A Kuehn v State Farm Update (Updated)”