Florida insurance lawyer – Page 7

October 6, 2014

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Monday, October 6, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Florida Insurance Law: Florida’s Citizens Pays Off Bond, Drops Surcharge 2 Years Early
Florida’s state-backed property insurer will stop collecting a one-percent assessment that had been used to retire a bond issued following the 2004-2005 hurricane season.

The Citizens Property Insurance Corp. board of directors decided the insurer will have the necessary funds to retire the bonds as of June 15. The bonds had been scheduled to be paid off in June 2017.

Citizens Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Montero said the decision follows last year’s vote to continue the assessments.

“When we came before the board last year, we recommended continuation of the one percent for another year in anticipation in the future or even elimination of the assessment,” said Montero.

Citizens issued the bonds after the 2004-2005 hurricane season when eight major storms struck the state. Those storms left Citizens with a $1.7 billion shortfall. As a result, in 2007 the insurer levied a 1.4 percent emergency assessment paid for by all the state’s property policyholder.

That funding decision allowed Citizens to start paying down a 10-year post-event bond issuance that had a total price tax of $1.38 billion.

Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

September 26, 2014

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Friday, September 26, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Miami Hopes Storm Pumps, Seawall Will Protect Against Rising Seas
Climate change is not only already visible in iconic South Beach, but so is climate change adaptation, in the form of new storm water pumps meant to keep rising sea levels from swamping low-lying streets, city officials said Wednesday.

Extreme high tides in the fall and spring push seawater up through aging infrastructure, flooding some Miami Beach streets with more than a foot of water even on sunny days, snarling vehicle and pedestrian traffic. National and regional climate change risk assessments have used the flooding to illustrate the Miami area’s vulnerability to rising sea levels.

Watching a new storm water pump being readied for installation along the city’s bay front, officials said they hoped the project would make Miami Beach, a barrier island with an average elevation of 4.4 feet above sea level, an example of climate change adaptation instead of only risk.

A system of about 60 new pumps across the city will keep streets dry for the next 25 to 30 years, said Mayor Philip Levine. A higher sea wall also is being built to cope with storm surge flooding.

Read more here…

Commercial Rates in Florida’s Citizens Going Up 3.3%
Rates for the almost 100,000 commercial property risks insured by Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will rise an average 3.3 percent next February.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has approved the increase, which is less that the average 5.2 percent increase requested by Citizens. The decision came after 45-day deliberative process and a public hearing on Aug. 27 in Tallahassee.

Commercial polices are found in both Citizens’ Commercial Lines and Coastal Accounts and represent 99,009 of Citizens’ total 933,807 policies statewide.
OIR previously approved new rates for homeowners accounts, a statewide average rate decrease of 3.7 percent.

Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

September 15, 2014September 10, 2018

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Monday, September 15, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Florida Insurance Law: Florida’s Citizens No Longer ‘Out of Control,’ Says Exec Defending Rate Cut
Its successes in reducing its insured population and securing low cost catastrophic coverage are driving the request by Florida’s state-backed property insurer for a statewide average 2.9 percent decrease on residential policies.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. officials in a public hearing before the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) painted a picture of an insurer that has downsized significantly while financially improving over the last several years.

Read more here…

Florida Insurance Law: Crist, Scott Spar Over Property Insurance in Race for Governor
Democrat Charlie Crist said he successfully reduced rising property insurance rates as governor and will do so again if elected, vowing to repeal a law enacted under Republican Gov. Rick Scott that he said provides weaker coverage at a higher price.

It’s a familiar theme for Crist, who campaigned in 2006 on a pledge to lower insurance rates that were skyrocketing after eight hurricanes battered Florida in two years. One of his first acts as governor was to call a special session to deal with rising rates. Lawmakers expanded the amount of state-sponsored reinsurance, which brought down costs for private carriers, and froze rates by the state-created Citizen’s Property Insurance Corp., which took on more policies as national companies backed away from Florida.

Read more here…

Florida Fraud Law: Home Depot Confirms Its Payment Systems Were Hacked
Home Depot Inc. confirmed on Monday its payment security systems have been breached, a data theft analysts warn could rival Target Corp.’s massive breach last year.

Home Depot said the data theft could impact its customers in stores across the United States and Canada, but there was no evidence that online customers were affected or debit personal identification numbers (PINs) were compromised.

Read more here…

Florida Real Estate Law: Free Florida Quit Claim Deed Form and Filing?
Reading this article will teach you the hazards for using a free Florida quit claim deed form and other do-it-yourself solutions to transfer your home or property.

Countless people are searching for and using free Florida quit claim deed forms they find online. These same people then without legal knowledge or training try to fill out the quit claim deed not even knowing if the form itself is proper for the State of Florida or for their specific purposes. As a Florida real estate lawyer, I am horrified that people think this is actually a good, prudent and financially wise decision.

Read more here…

Florida Real Estate Law: How Strong Is Florida’s ‘Revived’ Homeowners Market?
As Florida seeks to revive its private home insurance market after almost a decade without a hurricane, homeowners are pouring $6 billion a year in premiums into a new generation of small, in-state insurance companies with an unproven record of withstanding a major hurricane.

A consumer-oriented rating agency, Weiss Ratings, recently awarded the companies a median grade of C-minus, and even without a major storm to drive up claims, 11 of them have already failed in Florida since 2006, according to state records.

Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

September 12, 2014

Weekly Review for U.S. Veterans for Friday, September 12, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for U.S. Veterans. Enjoy!

Apps for History: Now your phone can make WWII ‘then & now’ images
Its not often we get to do app reviews at War History Online, but Timera is something a little different and is included in the list of “Hottest 100 European startups of 2014″.

If you have seen some of the work of Sergey Larenkov or some of the images on Ghosts of History you will be familiar with the concept. However, Timera allows anyone to easily create these kind of “then and now” photos with an iPhone or an Android device. Once you have created the “Timera”, which is what they call the resulting combination of old and new, you can share to social networks or just with the rest of the timera community. The app is free to download from Google Play, iTunes or timera.com The Daily Mail featured the app back in the summer and so too did Buzzfeed.

Read more here…

Help a Vet: VA Rallies Community Support for Veterans During Suicide Prevention Month
One small act could save the life of a Veteran or Servicemember in crisis – that’s the inspiration behind “The Power of 1” campaign. The campaign launches this September during Suicide Prevention Month and is a joint project coordinated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

“The campaign emphasizes the effect that just one person, one conversation, or one act can have on the life of a Veteran or Servicemember by offering hope and opening the door to support,” said Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy, Interim Under Secretary for Health. “It also is designed to spread the word about VA and DoD mental health resources and suicide prevention efforts.”

A new public service announcement, “The Power of 1,” reinforces this message by focusing on the small, everyday actions that can play a pivotal role in improving a Veteran’s life. In addition, a Suicide Prevention Month Web page, VeteransCrisisLine.net/ThePowerof1, offers interactive tools to learn more about the Veterans Crisis Line and how small acts make a difference.

Read more here…

World (not just Houston)…..we have a problem: Inside the mind of an ISIS fighter
To the outside world, they’re a force of ruthless yet mysterious insurgents bent on terrorizing civilians and expanding Islamist rule.

But as one former ISIS fighter tells CNN, the mentality goes much deeper.
“The main and principal goal of the Islamic State that they tell their new members is to establish an Islamic state that will encompass the Arab world,” the man said in Turkey. “And after that, we go to other countries.”

Just two weeks ago, the man was in Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold in northern Syria. Like many cities across Syria and Iraq, Raqqa has been overrun by ISIS militants who show no mercy for those who don’t follow their hard line.

Read more here…

History Book Review: BELSEN – Review by Phil Hodges
The name Belsen is synonymous with a vision of hell. We automatically think of the pictures we’ve seen of the twisted bodies being thrown unceremoniously into huge hastily dug pits or the PatheNews reels of a Royal Engineer driving a bulldozer, scarf over mouth and nose to keep the stench out created as he pushes the corpses into giant heaps.

It’s relevant we have these images in mind, as this book is a photographic journal of one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious concentration camps. Some fifty thousand were said to have perished within the compounds of Belsen, most died of typhoid and other diseases, as there were no actual gas chambers at the camp. However, there were daily beatings and thousands died at the hands of their German and Hungarian guards, many of them brutal women recruited by the SS to dish out discipline and instill fear amongst the inmates.

Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for U.S. Veterans.

September 8, 2014

Weekly Review for Law Practice Tips for Monday, September 8, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week related to law practice management, law technology, and legal marketing. Enjoy!

Law Business: 12 pieces of LinkedIn advice you’ve (likely) never heard
Did you know there’s a way to make second- and third-degree connections appear in your feed, or that you can message people in the same groups as you? Read on for more LinkedIn hacks here…

Legal Marketing: Why Social Media Doesn’t Work For Attorneys and what to do about it
If you’ve seen any of the ‘ALS Challenge’ videos over the last few weeks, you have witness the power of social media. The ‘ALS Challenge’ has captured the attention of millions of people all over the world and at the same time it’s raised millions of dollars over a very short period of time.

The lesson here is learning just how to leverage the power of social media for your law practice. No, you don’t HAVE to do use social media, but if you don’t, your competition will and they will be happy to take your business.

One thing that Joel shared stuck out to me. Do you know what social media is really about? It’s about life. It’s about relationships. It’s about real people sitting behind a computer and they’re just like you – they have successes, they have problems … and they need a solution to those problems.

As a practicing attorney, YOU are the solution to many of those problems.
Here’s what social media is not.

Read more here…

Lawyer Tech and Trial Tips: Tips for Better Presenting Photographs in Court
Well-presented photographs are powerful tools for litigators. In this post, I’ll share some samples that show how we’ve helped litigators use photographs in court, along with a number of tips for getting the most from your photographs in litigation.

Read more here…

Law Practice Management Tips: How To Run A Law Firm Like A Startup
Most law firms bill clients by the hour. It’s been this way for decades. But the system is fundamentally flawed: It rewards employees for being unproductive.
Social enterprise attorney Kyle Westaway is trying to change that. He works out of his Brooklyn loft and has found some of his young startup clients via social media. He uses virtually no paper and bills on a by-project basis.

Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Law Practice Tips!

September 5, 2014

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Friday, September 5, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Those with bad credit pay more for homeowners insurance
STUDY HIGHLIGHTS THE FINANCIAL DISPARITY BETWEEN THOSE WITH POOR CREDIT AND THOSE WITH GOOD CREDIT
A new study from InsuranceQuotes.com shows that credit score is having a major impact on the out-of-pockets costs of homeowners insurance in Alabama. Credit is one of the foundational tools that the insurance industry uses to assess risks in any given market. Credit is a gauge of financial risk, allowing the financial service industry to properly assess liability in any given scenario. Poor credit represents a significant risk, which is why those with a low credit score often have trouble finding loans and receiving credit cards. Read more here…

Yeah, right…Florida’s Citizens’ Gilway Defends Overseas Travel
The top official of Florida’s state-backed property insurer stepped forward yesterday to defend his organization’s international travel, arguing it was necessary to conclude a $3.1 billion risk transfer plan.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. President Barry Gilway has found himself under fire in recent weeks by Gov. Rick Scott over press reports that detailed the insurer’s overseas travel.

Specifically, Scott questioned the role of Citizens Chair Chris Gardner, who on a trip to Bermuda was reimbursed for a two-night hotel stay at $104 above Citizens overseas travel guidelines. Gardner reimbursed Citizens for the overage, which was caught by the insurer in an internal review. Read more here…

Florida’s Flood Agency Stops Writing New Business in Tampa Bay Region
One of the first entities to step forward and provide private flood insurance in Florida has announced it will stop writing new business in the Tampa Bay region in order to manage its exposure.

The Flood Agency, which offers private flood coverage that are backed by the surplus lines insurer Lloyd’s Private Flood, announced the move some nine months after it began offering the coverage.

The Gainesville-based agency’s decision affects Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Sarasota and Manatee counties. Flood Agency President Evan Hecht told reporters the decision to stop providing new policies in those areas are based on the need to balance Lloyd’s exposure. Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

August 13, 2014

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Friday, August 15, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Florida Legal Help: When Should I File a Florida Legal Claim?
Normally I do not write in such broad strokes. Originally, I was going to write about when a Florida insurance claim should be filed. Then after thinking about it for a moment, I decided the advice applicable to insurance claims is equally important to all Florida legal claims. So, if you have a Florida legal claim that involves business deals gone wrong; contracts breached; monies that have not been paid; insurance claims denied; personal injuries suffered; or real estate deals that are upside down; then this article is for you!
Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

August 2, 2014

Weekly Review for Law Practice Tips for Friday, August 8, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week related to law practice management, law technology, and legal marketing. Enjoy!

Legal Tech Tips: Video depositions, Lights, camera, deposition
A few tips to help witnesses handle video-recorded Q&A’s
I once believed that when being deposed, the best strategy was to answer the question as tersely as possible. After all, the purpose of the deposition is to know what the other side knows.

It is an attempt to level the information playing field. You get to see inside their file cabinet, and they get to see inside yours. There was no need to wear a suit, sit up straight or be polite. Each side just hunkered down for a few hours or a few days; one side digging and the other side dribbling until it came time to switch roles.

Read more here…

Law Practice Management Tip: So you’re not up at 5am to work? What’s wrong with you? Nothing.

I cringe every time I read a story about a person who starts their day at 4am, after surviving on only 5 hours sleep, to get up and start yet another highly productive day. They’ve written their first client brief before their ‘all greens’ smoothie and done a mini-triathlon by 7am.

After a quick shower, they ride 10kms to their work and ‘start’ their day by reading all their newspapers in an allocated 30 minute slot. Then it’s the team meet up before a full one day of meetings, workshops, team time outs and a session at the gym topped off with a protein shake. It goes on. You get the drift.

By the time I also learn they have their two, five and ten year plan mapped out, I am weeping.

Read more here…

Legal Technology Tips: Persuasive Litigator: Don’t Assume the Camera Is Neutral
Cameras don’t simply record what is in front of the lens. Every movie director knows that the camera highlights, frames, hides, emphasizes and distorts. The Francis Ford Coppola’s among them know that they’re not simply filming, they’re ‘painting with light’ using the film as a canvas. The legal uses of cameras – interrogations, depositions, site visits — are a bit more prosaic than that, but they’re not immune to the camera’s lack of neutrality. In a legal setting, the consequences of mistaking the recorded image for unfiltered reality can be greater. And the practical need to check out the camera’s influence is great as well.

Read more here…

Legal Marketing: Is it unethical for lawyers to use ghostwritten blog posts?
Kevin O’Keefe says that ghostwritten blog posts are unethical for lawyers. Unlike legal briefs or other work a lawyer may have penned by others, blogs are considered a form of advertising. If you say you wrote the piece but you didn’t, you are guilty of misrepresentation.

O’Keefe says that clients rely on blog posts to choose attorneys. “The ghost-written post may be better written, funnier, or just plain different than the attorney’s own work product. Even worse, the post may have a completely different perspective or contain better ideas than what the attorney is capable of.”

Basically, clients might hire you because you made them believe you are a better lawyer than you really are.

Read more here…

Law Practice Management Tip: The First Step to Heading Off Unpaid Receivables

I’m addicted to using my law firm to earn points and miles on our credit card expenditures. On top of that, I love getting the signup bonuses.
To further my addiction, I signed my wife up for cards after I’d used up all the offers in my name. She was promptly approved for cards with Chase, American Express, and others.

The fact that she was approved only gets interesting if you know that she hasn’t earned any significant income in more than two decades. Her applications were instantly approved online as she hit the “apply” button.
So with no income, she was approved for credit. That’s interesting, but what does it have to do with your practice? Everything.

Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Law Practice Tips!

August 2, 2014

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Monday, August 4, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Hurricane Watch: Tropical Storm Bertha forms in the Atlantic
Tropical Storm Bertha barreled toward the northern end of the island of Martinique in the eastern Caribbean on Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and was churning through the Atlantic at 24 mph. Bertha was located about 20 miles northwest of Fort de France, Martinique, the hurricane center’s 5 p.m. advisory said. It formed on Thursday.

Read more here…

Florida Insurance News: Federated National Launching Another Florida Home Insurer, Monarch National
Florida homeowners’ insurer Federated National Holding Co. and the Canadian bank and investment manager C.A. Bancorp Inc. have agreed to form a new Florida-based homeowners insurance carrier to be named Monarch National Insurance Co.

Both FNHC and C.A. Bancorp are each putting up $14 million for a 42 percent ownership stake each in the new venture.

Read more here…

Florida Insurance: Homeowners insurance fee may soon expire
Florida’s so called “Hurricane Tax” on homeowners and drivers is expected to come to an end at the beginning of 2015. Policyholders have been paying an extra fee for their property and auto coverage for some time, but the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has ordered that insurers put an end to these fees 18 months ahead of when these fees were initially meant to expire.

Insurers have until January 1, 2015, to put these fees to rest.

Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

July 23, 2014

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Friday, July 25, 2014

Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Florida Gov. Scott Agrees to Meet with Climate Scientists
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said his administration would be “happy to meet” with 10 scientists from Florida universities who want to talk about climate change, a subject he has been reluctant to address.

A letter from the scientists was delivered to Scott’s office Tuesday. Scott and other Republicans have been skeptical of global warming and the governor has worked with the GOP-controlled Legislature to dismantle climate change initiatives.

When a federal report earlier this year highlighted Florida — and Miami in particular — among the parts of the country most vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, Scott said: “I’m not a scientist” when asked about it. Read more here…

Is this a bad thing? Florida Frets That With Proposed Rate Cut, Citizens Could Be Too Competitive
Florida’s state-backed property insurer’s proposed rate reduction is raising questions about whether it will make the insurer competitive with the private market.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. recently proposed 2015 rates that include a statewide average 2.9 percent rate decrease on all residential policyholders.
The proposed rate cut comes after eight years without any significant hurricane losses and five years of rate increases following the so-called “glide-path,” which limits annual rate increases to 10 percent.
The rate changes also follow Citizens’ recent decision to transfer $3.1 billion in risk for the 2014 hurricane season through a combination of traditional reinsurance and catastrophe bonds, a $1.5 billion deal that is the largest of its kind on record. Read more here…

Flood Insurance Rates Set to Rise in Florida
Flood insurance rates in Florida are set to increase yet again. Thousands of homeowners throughout the state are likely to see higher rates in the coming months as the National Flood Insurance Program continues to raise rates throughout the country. These rates are based on flood maps devised by FEMA. The federal agency has been making revisions to these flood maps recently in order to better account for the changing risks associated with natural disasters and provide insurance entities a better understanding of these risks. Read more here…

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!