Grothe v. Kushnivich, 521 P.3d 228 (Wash. App. 2022) One by one, states have begun to recognize a vehicle owner’s third-party claim for residual diminished value damage, or “stigma damage”, which is the loss of value of an automobile that remains after it is completely and professionally repaired. It is the loss of value that…
What you don’t know can’t help you. That is certainly the case in Iowa when plaintiff’s attorneys claim no obligation to reimburse a carrier exists based on a general assertion that the insured was not made whole. This objection overlooks the proper application of the made-whole doctrine to specific damage types as required under Iowa…
Insurance subrogation professionals are routinely faced with minimum limits scenarios which complicate otherwise straightforward subrogation cases. When a third-party liability carrier’s insurance limits are insufficient to pay the claims of multiple claimants, the carrier must begin to assess the hierarchy of the claimants – how to slice the insured’s pie. In order to do this,…
One day last month our firm received three separate, unrelated subrogation claim files involving serious personal injury, property damage, and a death resulting from tractor-trailers whose drivers had lost control after serving to avoid colliding with a deer on the highway. In two of the losses, the 18-wheelers overturned and were shortly thereafter struck by…
A new analysis of pedestrian safety by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) reveals that pedestrian fatalities are sharply on the rise. In fact, the report reveals the astonishing news that an average of nearly twenty-two (22) pedestrians per day were struck and killed by automobiles in the U.S. in 2020 and that number is…
Turner v. Pleasant Acres LLC, 2022 WL 815834 (Kan. App. 2022). On the same day as the Alabama Court of Appeals issued its ruling in O’Brien v. Mobile Public Library, attempting to curtail the rights of a workers’ compensation carrier against UM/UIM benefits, the Kansas Court of Appeals was doing exactly the opposite. For years,…
Thomas Fuller once said, “All doors open to courtesy.” It appears that this may now include the courthouse door. Heavy traffic is moving along smoothly in all lanes of a four-lane boulevard when suddenly a vehicle in the right lane comes to a complete stop and waves to a vehicle waiting to enter the roadway…
New Jersey is a confusing state when it comes to automobile insurance and PIP benefits. Every owner or registered owner of an automobile registered or principally garaged in New Jersey must have automobile liability insurance coverage insuring against loss resulting from liability for bodily injury, death, and property damage sustained by any person arising out…
When an automobile is damaged in an accident and then repaired, the resale value may be less than a comparable automobile that has not been damaged. In other words, the damage results in a reduction or “diminution” in the resale value of the automobile. An insured’s claim for this reduction in value may be made…
Wilkie v. Hartford Underwriters Ins. Co., 494 P.3d 892 (Mont. 2021). A brand-new Montana Supreme Court decision has sounded off—sort of—in the nationwide debate over whether a liability insurer has a duty to provide liability policy limits to a third-party claimant when liability is reasonably clear. In particular, the new decision says that a pre-suit failure…