May 4, 2022 | Legal Alerts

Rising Litigation Pushing Insurers to the Brink of Insolvency

While plaintiffs’ lawyers like to continuously point their fingers at insurance companies, the reality is that insurers must contend with a number of minefields and difficulties on all sides. When insurance companies deny claims, they are portrayed as heartless and penny-pinching; however, increases in fraud and litigation have made things precarious for Florida’s homeowners' insurance companies. Now, many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy and could go out of business without help from the Florida Legislature. 

April 13, 2022 | Verdicts and Settlements

Hollywood Attorneys Obtain Defense Verdict in a Premises Liability Case

Thomas McCausland, partner, and Lauren McEndree, associate, obtained a defense verdict in a premises liability case that was tried over 4 days in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Plaintiff claimed she slipped and fell in the parking lot of the defendant gas station as a result of an improperly painted parking stripe. The jury ruled for defendant in under 15 minutes of deliberations having concluded that defendant was not negligent.

April 8, 2022 | Verdicts and Settlements

Melissa McDavitt and Sarah Kippers Successfully Prevailed on their Motion for Final Summary Judgment in PIP Case

Congratulations to West Palm Beach attorneys Melissa McDavitt and Sarah Kippers for successfully prevailing on their Motion for Final Summary Judgment.  In granting the Defendant’s Motion, the Court found the recent Supreme Court ruling in MRI Associates of Tampa, Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., NO. SC 19-1390 to be determinative of the issues and held there is nothing in the PIP statute or the Policy that would require an insurer to pay in excess of 80% of a submitted charge.

Click here to read the Order.

March 23, 2022 | Legal Alerts

Recommendations for Workers’ Compensation Subrogation

Workers’ compensation insurance providers are not powerless when they have to pay out claims where a third party was responsible for the injury. In these situations, the insurance provider has the right of subrogation, where it can recover what it paid for the claim from the responsible party. Subrogation can occur when someone outside the employment relationship caused the injury.

March 22, 2022 | Verdicts and Settlements

Workers’ Compensation Win

Esther Ruderman, a workers’ compensation partner in our West Palm Beach Office, and Diane Tutt, an appellate partner in our Hollywood Office, were successful in a significant workers’ compensation case involving a teacher whose leg fell asleep while sitting on a chair in the classroom, causing him to fall when he got up, sustaining injury.