Weatherford insurance law attorneys and those in Aledo, Springtown, Cool, Millsap, Mineral Wells, and other places in Parker County need to be keeping up with what insurance companies get caught doing wrong.
A Beaumont, Texas, newspaper ran an article regarding an insurance company treating Louisiana insureds wrong. The article tells us that a state-run insurance company of last resort agreed in September to settle two remaining class-action lawsuits tied to claims handled after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The board for the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. voted unanimously to settle the long-running lawsuits for $61 million. Policyholders sued the company over the slow handling of claims after the hurricanes struck in 2005.
The board also authorized company CEO Richard Robertson to place caps of $4,500 per claim, $150,000 for court costs and $750,000 for administrative expenses.
The settlement comes after Citizens paid a $104 million judgment in July that will benefit more than 18,500 policyholders who sued over slow adjustment claims after the hurricanes. September’s offer, which was voted on publicly after a 90-minute closed door session, is meant to cover plaintiffs who weren’t initially covered in July’s settlement.
Citizens CEO Richard Robertson has said one lawsuit involved 7,800 claimants and up to 12,000 in the other.
One of the last hurdles claimants faced was cleared in June when the U.S. Supreme Court decided they wouldn’t review rulings requiring Citizens to pay an estimated $110 million to the claimants. The company appealed to the nation’s highest court in April, alleging that the state agency was denied due process throughout the ongoing state court litigation.
Citizens was granted permission in May to secure a $75 million cash line of credit to cover hurricane damages in the state because board members expected the pending legal judgment to drain the company’s bank account. Citizens had set about $140 million aside to cover the settlement made in July.
Board members expect claims from Hurricane Isaac to cost the company between $50 million and $80 million. They also anticipate having to either issue additional bonds to raise money or declare a 2012 deficit and collect a regular assessment from the insurance industry to cover an estimated $141 million cash shortfall.
Louisiana law is different from Texas law but there are still many similarities. In Texas, an experienced Insurance Law Attorney can sue an insurance company, including agents and adjusters under many theories of law.
These different theories of law can be as basic as breach of contract and negligence.
The better ways to sue an insurance company include claims for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and violations of the Texas Insurance Code.
Almost all claims involving a breach of the Texas Insurance Code are going to involve violations of the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act.
Depending of the severity of the violations committed by the insurance company, there can be recovery of exemplary damages.
Almost all violations are going to allow for the recovery of attorney fees and court costs.
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