This month, Claimwire.com featured an in-depth and personal interview with Gary L. Wickert, partner at Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. (“MWL”). Claimwire serves the insurance industry by providing forms, news, resources, and vendor information to assist insurance professionals involved in the field of workers’ compensation. Similar to MWL’s own website, Claimwire is a relatively new site that…
The claims history of most domestic insurance carriers is littered with billion dollar claims as a result of catastrophic losses caused by natural disasters. When God sends a hurricane, tornado, flood, or naturally-occurring fire, the resulting losses can be enough to put many insurance companies into receivership. With no third parties or obvious subrogation potential,…
What if the deck was stacked in such a way that insureds and tortfeasors could gerrymander and structure a tort settlement so as to ensure that the insured would never be “made whole”? Surely such ability would be a legal absurdity in a state where subrogation is supposedly favored for all of the societal benefits…
Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. (“MWL”) partners Ryan Woody and Jim Busenlener won a major victory for Medicare Advantage Organizations (“MAOs”). In Collins v. Wellcare Healthcare Plans, Inc., 2014 WL 7239426 (E.D. La. Dec. 16, 2014), the federal court recognized, for the first time, that MAOs are entitled to bring a Private Cause of Action…
One of the recurring questions Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. (MWL) is called on to answer involves when and under what circumstances the insured suffering automobile property damage, or his or her subrogated automobile insurer, may recover for diminution in value of a damaged automobile. This article is intended to provide a global answer to…
Plan For The Best, Expect The Worst, And Prepare To Be Surprised Thomas Reid once said, “There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.” Nowhere is this truism as important than in the settlement of third-party lawsuits involving workers’ compensation carriers’ subrogation liens and future credits. For lack…
There is a great deal of confusion in Louisiana regarding whether a workers’ compensation carrier can subrogate against or receive reimbursement from the proceeds of an uninsured or underinsured (UM/UIM) automobile policy. The Louisiana Supreme Court has unequivocally stated that a UM carrier is considered a third person under Louisiana workers’ compensation law. Travelers Ins.…
More than 1,000 vehicles a day are damaged by paint overspray in the United States, resulting in more than one-half of a billion dollars in damage and insurance claims annually. Airborne paint overspray results from all sorts of industrial, commercial, and private paint jobs, such as bridges, water towers, and other large and inconveniently located…
“Force-placed insurance” is an insurance policy placed by a lender or bank on a home or vehicle when the property owners’ own insurance is cancelled, has lapsed or is deemed insufficient. This insurance insures the lender and allows the lender to protect its financial interest in the property. It is rarely called the same thing…
For years, Pennsylvania products liability law has been split between state and federal courts with regard to the applicable standard for proving a strict liability design defect case. Pennsylvania State Courts followed common law precedent flowing from a 1978 case, implementing the principles of the Restatement of Torts (Second). In 2009, the U.S Court of…