We tried a case against Tower Hill last year where the sole issue was does chemical grout need to be performed at the property in addition to the compaction grout that the insurance company’s engineer recommended. The engineer for Tower Hill was SDII and at trial SDII testified that no way would chemical grout be…
We are proud to announce a victory at trial over Citizens yesterday. It was an extremely unique and exhausting trial even though it only lasted one day. In short, our client is a Spanish speaker who bought a policy from a Citizens agent. She claimed she was told when she bought the policy she would…
Below is an article published on RiskandInsurance.com that includes commentary from our firm. Credit Steve Yahn, the author. When 37-year-old Jeff Bush was swallowed up by a giant gap in the earth when he was sleeping in his bedroom in his central Florida home in late February, his death spotlighted a natural disaster occurrence in…
A golfer was enjoying a round in St Louis Missouri on March 8, 2013 when the ground suddenly swallowed him. Mark Mihal actually noticed the smaller hole in the ground while on the 14th fairway and walked over to take a better look. Suddenly Mark found himself at the bottom of an 18 foot hole…
In the past ten years or so sinkhole cases very rarely went to trial. They are extremely risky for insurance companies since they have to pay attorney fees, costs and interest if they lose and unless you are Citizens could face bad faith damages as well. For an insurance company to lose a trial it…
We have noticed a growing trend in the past year or so that many insurance companies are hiring different law firms left and right to handle their sinkhole work. It used to be that when an insurance company found a law firm they liked and thought did good legal work they would stick with them…
The firm of Corless Barfield is proud to announce that we have hired a wonderful personal injury lawyer named John Mulvihill. Mr. Mulvihill was a former State Attorney who then worked at Winters & Yonker for many years. He now joins our firm with tremendous experience in handling hundreds, if not thousands, of personal injury…
We discussed an upcoming trial last month against State Farm. The trial concluded on Wednesday with a victory for the homeowner, albeit not everything he asked for. This was a different case. The homeowner suffered a confirmed sinkhole and, as State Farm demanded, repaired his home to State Farm’s engineer’s specifications. Post-grout, he continued to…
This past week State Farm Florida Insurance decided to try its luck in a claim where State Farm’s experts had denied sinkhole activity was affecting their insured”s property. After nearly five days of testimony the Hillsborough County jury returned a verdict in favor of the homeowner, not only confirming that State farm should have provided…
As Florida’s sinkhole issues continue to become national news, the Wall Street Journal recently decided to get into the fray. Unfortunately, the article had a very pro-insurance slant and went out of its way to place those fighting for homeowners in a very negative light. The article focuses on public adjusters here in Florida and…
