A favorite quote of mine from the 2001 Jerry Zucker movie “Rat Race” goes like this: “Good things take time; but great things happen all at once.” Most of the time, laws change at a glacial pace. Where there is a provision of law that most people believe should be changed, it usually takes years…
Moreci v. Scaffold Solutions, Inc., 2021 WL 4397397 (Calif. App. 2021). A valiant effort by a California workers’ compensation carrier to make it more difficult for an employee to argue employer fault and settle around a workers’ compensation carrier’s statutory lien and right of reimbursement fell on deaf ears recently, when the California Court of…
Secura Sup. Ins. Co. v. Est. of Huck, 2021 WL 4449249 (Wis. App. 2021). A new Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision has ruled that an uninsured/underinsured (UM/UIM) automobile insurance carrier cannot reduce UM/UIM payments to its insured by the amount of workers’ compensation benefits the insured received, if the insured had to reimburse those benefits…
Recovery of Case Management Costs, Medical Bill Audit fees, Rehabilitation Benefits, Utilization Review Costs, IME’s, Nurse Case Worker Fees, Attorneys’ Fees, and Other “Allocated” Loss Adjustment Expenses. It’s the question every claims professional and trial attorney claims to know but few fully understand. In addition to paying for medical expenses, death benefits, funeral costs and/or…
In 1992, the National Fire Protection Association created a set of investigative guidelines that was published as “NFPA 921: Guide for Fire and Explosive Investigations.” The guide is widely used by both public and private fire investigators. It describes in detail the scientific method and how to specifically apply the method in the context of…
Moranz v. Harbor Mall, LLC, 477 P.3d 179 (Haw. App. 2020), cert. granted, SCWC-17-0000006, 2021 WL 1924134 (Haw. May 13, 2021). We are at the precipice of a potential upheaval in workers’ compensation recovery rights in the Aloha State. The Hawaii Supreme Court is about to decide whether equitable considerations and defenses to subrogation—such as…
New Trend Poses Threat In Subrogation Trials. Effective January 1, 2022, Arizona will become the first state to eliminate the use of peremptory challenges in jury selection in both criminal and civil trials—including the trial of subrogation cases. It isn’t news to the insurance industry that many (if not most) people harbor certain resentments against insurance…
We have recently seen an uptick in cases where a tree has fallen on to a neighbor’s house, with calamitous results. Hurricane Ida will likely only increase such claims. As the first-party claim by the homeowner is processed, subrogation professionals are usually involved to determine if the owner of the tree was at fault and…
Picture this. You build your dream home, or you add a new room onto your house. The first time it rains, you end up with a leaky roof, damaged walls, water on your floors, and your belongings require cleaning or replacement. If your loss occurred in Texas, and you wish to seek recovery, you will…
The ability of a landlord’s property insurer to subrogate against a tenant for property damage caused by the negligence of the tenant depends on which state the loss occurs in and the nature and language of the lease involved. There are generally three different approaches: A minority of courts hold that, absent a clear contractual…