Articles Posted in General

Fort Worth lawyers and those in Saginaw, North Richland Hills, Grapevine, and other places in Tarrant County need to keep up with lawyer news and insurance news. The American Bar Association ran an article on October 11, describing an attorney suing an insurance company.

The article tells us a jury trial was beginning for a Texas lawyer seeking $25 million in a tortious interference suit against an insurance company with which he formerly had dealings while representing plaintiffs in asbestos cases.

The lawyer contends that Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. set him up to face criminal prosecution, without appropriate basis, in order to conceal the involvement of two of its own claims processors in a $3 million extortion from him, reports Bloomberg in a lengthy article about the case. He argues that the insurer protected the two employees to preclude their telling regulators about a lack of reserved funds at the time of the scheme to cover asbestos-related claims.

Grand Prairie attorneys and those in Dallas, Richardson, Mesquite, Garland, Carrollton, and other places in Dallas County should keep themselves informed about law in other areas of the country. Knowledge of how other states handle their cases gives insight and argument concerning how Texas courts should handle similar cases.

Here is a short brief on a Louisiana insurance case.

The style of the case is Katie Realty, Ltd. v. Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Weatherford attorneys who handle insurance claims need to be aware of laws related to flood insurance. Here are a couple of cases that are good to know.

The first case is styled, Wright v. Allstate Insurance Company. It is a Federal Court opinion that was issued in 2007, by the 5th Circuit.

The insured homeowner sued Write Your Own insurer for fraud and negligent misrepresentation arising out of Tropical Storm Allison flood damage. Allstate had rejected Wright’s claim because of failure to cooperate and failure to file an adequate proof of loss. The district court found that Wright had failed to prove all of his damages were caused by flooding. In a prior appeal, the 5th Circuit had ruled that state law claims were pre-empted. Wright sought to amend the complaint to assert federal common law extra-contractual claims for fraud and misrepresentation.

Arlington insurance lawyers and those in other places in Tarrant County need to keep themselves informed as to all issues related to insurance. Here is an article that deals with auto insurers and the way they charge premiums. The article was published in the New York Times in September of 2012. The interesting aspect of the article is how insurance companies use factors unrelated to driving to set rates.

Automobile insurers may use factors unrelated to driving, like education and occupation, in determining rates.

Now, a consumer group is urging state insurance commissioners to restrict insurers’ ability to use those factors, arguing that the result has been unfairly high rates for lower-income drivers. Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America, said in a call this week with reporters that premiums should mainly reflect factors like accidents, speeding tickets and miles driven.

Fort Worth insurance lawyers and those in Grapevine, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, and other parts of Tarrant County need to know how to handle Federal Court cases.

Insurance companies prefer to fight cases is Federal Court. When they remove a case that was filed in State Court to Federal Court, a lawyer needs to know some of the ways to get the case back into State Court and or prevent the removal in the first place.

A recent court opinion styled, Beverly Nichols v. Allstate Texas Lloyd’s is an example.

Dallas insurance attorneys and those in Garland, Mesquite, Richardson, Duncanville, and all over Dallas County need to keep up with recent court cases. Here is one from the U.S. Southern District Court, Houston Division.

The style is Herman J. Benton Jr. Revocable Trust v. Lexington Insurance Company et al. The opinion was issued on August 31, 2012.

This is a case that was filed in State District Court and removed to Federal District Court. A Motion to Remand was filed by attorneys for Benton.

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.