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.

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.

March 21, 2022 | Verdicts and Settlements

Defense Verdict Obtained in Hurricane Irma Case

Cristobal Casal, managing partner, and Elliott Tubbs,  an associate, in the firm’s Fort Myers office, obtained a defense verdict in a first party property case tried over 3 days in Lee County, Florida.  Plaintiffs were the insured homeowners who claimed that their home's shingle roof and a significant amount of the interior of the home was damaged as a result of Hurricane Irma, and that the insurance carrier breached the subject policy of insurance by denying the claim.  The jury found that the Plaintiffs had not met their burden of proving that the home was damaged by Hurricane Irma.