Oh, that it wasn’t so, but today’s world of insurance claims adjusting, subrogation, and civil litigation rewards the ability of one party to take advantage of what the other party doesn’t know. A civil trial is known as an “adversary proceeding” because it pits two or more opponents against one another with regard to a…
The American horror film “Split”, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is a psychological thriller which centers on a bizarre antagonist with 23 separate personalities. Without spoiling the plot, suffice it to say that it focuses on the fact that there is something to the adage “mind over matter.” They say that life imitates art. If…
The law in Pennsylvania regarding the ability of a landlord’s property insurer to subrogate against a tenant whose negligence causes damage to the landlord’s building has been very slow to develop. But they are quickly making up for lost time. Until recently, Pennsylvania had only one case speaking to this issue. In 1990, the Pennsylvania…
Thin skin and subrogation do not go hand-in-hand. We are the crashers at every party and the uninvited guests that nobody wants to see show up when a personal injury suit has been filed. Trial lawyers believe we take money from the pockets of victims and defense lawyers believe that we make the cases they…
For almost five decades Texas has had a single statute of repose which imposed a ten (10) year period for claims against architects, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, builders, and construction contractors.[1] Texas has imposed a ten-year statute of repose on suits against builders or contractors who construct or repair improvements to real property. It…
Workers’ Compensation Subrogation and Employee Leasing Companies At its core, workers’ compensation subrogation is quite simple. Employee injured while at work receives workers compensation benefits. Carrier paying benefits recovers those benefits from anyone responsible for causing the injury other than the employer. As the saying goes, however, “Progress is man’s ability to complicate the simple.”…
Claims Journal recently reported on a new Ohio State University study which examines who is at fault when cars hit pedestrians shows that vehicle/pedestrian accidents occur much more frequently in certain environments than in others. The study showed that pedestrians were much more likely to be at fault when there was a high volume of…
The wildfires in the Texas Panhandle are already the largest fire in state history, resulting in two deceased, burning more than 1,059,570 acres, countless livestock loss, and over 500 structures damaged. The fire has still not been completely contained at the time of writing this article – and the damages are expected to increase. This…
A recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision interpreting Mississippi insurance law has ruled that an automobile insurance carrier can exclude diminished value claims from its underinsured motorist coverage. In Watkins v. Allstate Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Kimberly Jones (insured by Safeway Insurance Company) negligently crashed into a vehicle driven by Kenan Watkins (insured…
In Ohio, while the usual statute of limitations for both personal injury and property damage is two (2) years, § 2305.113 provides that an action for medical malpractice must in all cases be filed within four (4) years from the date that the medical negligence occurred. If the basis of the claim is discovered in…