March 17, 2023 | Legal Alerts

Insurance Fraud Costs the U.S. $308 Billion Annually

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF) has come out with a new study that shows the full extent of insurance fraud in the United States. For the first time in almost three decades, the figure that estimates total losses due to insurance fraud has been updated. According to the CAIF, total losses due to insurance fraud across the country are $308 billion. This figure is dramatically higher than the group’s $80 billion estimate in 1995, which is the last time it released an estimate of the cost of insurance fraud. The study may even underestimate the total amount of insurance fraud because some insurance companies may not realize that they have been defrauded due to sophisticated methods employed by fraudsters.

 

March 5, 2023 | Legal Alerts

Subrogation in Florida After Hurricane Ian

By some accounts, Hurricane Ian was the third-costliest weather disaster in history. It was also the strongest category 4 hurricane to hit Florida in almost two decades. In the wake of severe weather events like Hurricane Ian, insurance companies face a deluge of claims to process and handle. Insurance companies have a legal right to subrogate, meaning that they have the legal right to seek payment from third parties that bear some or all of the liability for the damage that is the subject of a claim. Oftentimes, when an insurance company subrogates, it is seeking damages from the contractor that built the structure in the first place. Here is what insurance companies need to know when considering whether to subrogate a claim in the wake of a severe weather event like Hurricane Ian.

February 22, 2023 | Legal Alerts

Remote Employees and Workers' Compensation: What Companies Should Know

The fact that employees are not physically at their work site does not mean that the potential for workers’ compensation claims is eliminated. In some ways, there is even more of a risk that an employee may be injured because the company cannot supervise how they do their work to the same extent they would if they were on a work site. Even with detailed instructions about work safety, employees may still put themselves at risk for injury. Thanks to the rise in remote work, there may be more complex issues surrounding workers' compensation claims now compared to when most employees did their work at a work site.

February 13, 2023 | Verdicts and Settlements

Summary Judgment Obtained In Homeowner’s Insurance Case

Jesse C. Dyer and Noelia C. Vaccaro recently prevailed on a motion for final summary judgment in a homeowner’s insurance case in Miami-Dade County, in which the Plaintiff alleged that the insurer materially breached the insurance policy by failing to make payment for mold testing. The Court agreed that the insurance policy only provided coverage for mold testing to the extent there was reason to believe mold was present, and Plaintiff’s affidavits failed to create a genuine issue of material fact because they were conclusory in nature.