Many insurance policies contain exclusions for damages associated with “civil unrest,” “riot or civil commotion,” “vandalism or malicious mischief,” or other terms meant to exclude the type of damages many Minneapolis property owners experienced as a result of rioting shortly after the death of George Floyd. With, the trial of former Minneapolis Police Office Derek Chauvin’s underway, many local business…
Discovery disputes in litigation are usually the result of unresolved misunderstandings between the parties over the nature of the issues in dispute. Most often, discovery disputes are and should be resolved without court intervention. Occasionally, there are bonafide discovery disputes that must be presented to the court for resolution. SJJ recently won a Motion to Compel Discovery ordering an insurer…
In prior posts, we have commented on the standard two-year time limit for suit found in many Minnesota homeowners policies that effectively serves to shorten the time in which you may make a claim for insurance proceeds. The two-year time limit for suit is generally enforceable and acts as a contractual statute of limitation. But, there are other deadlines tucked…
SJJ attorneys already established a policyholder’s ability to recover interest on an underpaid insurance claim when the policyholder is forced to resolve it through the appraisal process in 2017 before the Minnesota Supreme Court. Since then, some insurance companies have tried to alter their policies in an attempt to prevent policyholders from receiving interest on these underpaid claims.
Smith Jadin Johnson, PLLC recently won a decision in the Federal District of Minnesota compelling a reluctant insurer to participate in an appraisal of a disputed insurance claim. After the insured demanded an appraisal, the insurer commenced litigation seeking to avoid coverage for the claimed loss and refused to participate in appraisal.
2020 has been a bit of a roller coaster, to say the least. Governor Polis and the Colorado legislature have certainly had their hands full dealing with the pandemic, but nonetheless, they found time to protect policyholders in Colorado by preventing Insurance Carriers from engaging in revisionist history and asserting the failure to cooperate provision as a basis to avoid paying benefits owed under an insurance policy.
The Minnesota Supreme Court recently reconsidered the application of Minnesota’s “bad faith” insurance statute. At issue was whether an insurance company has denied a claim in bad faith if it has any conceivable basis to deny the claim at all, or whether a denial must be consistent with what a reasonable insurance company would do with similar facts. SJJ attorneys…
Summertime means insurance appraisals are in full swing in Minnesota. Like many things, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused additional and unexpected issues as individuals wrestle with social distancing and other safety issues.
In a very aggressive move, Auto-Owners Insurance sued its own policyholder in an attempt to avoid making payment on an appraisal award. When the claim began, Auto-Owners found wind damage to the policyholders’ commercial buildings in Wisconsin. Then it hired an “expert” who said that the wind damage was man-made and denied the claim. When the policyholders invoked appraisal to…
Most homeowners have little to no experience with property insurance claims. Many of us haven’t experienced accidental damage to or loss of our property because catastrophic events like house fires or wind and hailstorms don’t happen very often. And even when they do, many people avoid making insurance claims out of concerns about how that will affect their insurance premium…
