News & Events

Commercial property owners face a number of potential lawsuit risks from the nature of their business. Shoppers, visitors, vendors, and residents visit malls, amusement parks, manufacturing shops, and other establishments throughout the day and night. Accidents such as slip-and-falls can occur frequently.

Keeping properties safe and well-maintained can go a long way to heading off these legal actions, but it’s wise to stay aware of current legislation. Owners need to understand the types of access individuals may have to the property, recent changes to the law, and ways to protect their businesses against lawsuits. Knowing more about potential liability issues helps you avoid expensive and time-consuming claims.

Errors and omissions insurance is another name for professional liability insurance. If your company provides professional services, you could be at risk when a customer is unsatisfied with the services they received from you or your company. Your errors and omissions insurance would protect you against claims of negligence, mistakes, and inadequate work. This is crucial coverage. Otherwise, a single lawsuit could bankrupt your business and force it to close. For that reason, many business owners view E&O insurance as insurance they cannot afford to be without. In fact, companies should err on the side of caution if they are in doubt about whether they need this type of insurance.

John Viggiani and Jesse Dyer recently prevailed on a motion for final summary judgment in a personal injury action arising from a trucking accident in Duval County, Florida, in which the plaintiff was rendered paraplegic. The defendant was an international transportation services company, against whom the plaintiff alleged theories of negligent brokering and vicarious liability. The Court concluded that the plaintiff’s vicarious liability claim failed as a matter of law because the entity that brokered the shipment was acting outside the scope of any agency relationship which may have existed with the defendant. The Court concluded that the plaintiff’s negligent brokering claim failed as a matter of law because the defendant did not act as a broker for the specific transaction at issue.

In the past, insurance fraud detection consisted of employees manually poring over data and investigating potentially fraudulent claims. While the human element was sometimes effective, many instances of fraud got past gatekeepers and cost insurance companies large amounts of money. As insurance fraudsters have gotten more sophisticated, insurance companies have needed to stay one step ahead of them. At the very minimum, they need to keep pace with modern criminality.

Recently, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF) released updated numbers that show the cumulative impact of insurance fraud. CAIF estimated that insurance fraud costs the economy upwards of $300 billion each year, and this figure may be a conservative estimate. Fraudsters get the upper hand because they tend to stay one step ahead of the authorities.