“Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters.” [Genesis 7:17.]

I’m guessing that people didn’t have flood insurance in

The great American humorist and writer Ambrose Bierce (1842-circa 1914) published a famous work called “The Devil’s Dictionary,” in which he provided astute (if sardonic) definitions of many common terms in the English language. Bierce defined “insurance” for example, as “An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the

Arnold Palmer once described golf as “deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.”  That’s a good description for insurance also.  (Fortunate for me, since I get paid to figure it out.)  Given the rules of construction, ambiguities (even latent ambiguities) in insurance policies are supposed to be construed against the carrier. I’ve therefore always wondered why the

As the weeks following Sandy have stretched into months, and the months are beginning to stretch into years, businesses and homeowners with unresolved claims have been asking me whether it’s worthwhile to complain about their carrier to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance (“DOBI”).  Truth be told, it’s a complete waste of time.

In a recent decision in the federal district court here in New Jersey, Judge Irenas wrote:  “Plaintiff Marjorie Brooks alleges that her insurance company paid her too much money after her home was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. The court thus takes judicial notice of the following facts: pigs can fly and hell has frozen over.” 

As the Sandy-related insurance disputes develop along the New Jersey coast, we’re seeing what we anticipated:  general liability and homeowners’ carriers are disclaiming coverage on the ground that the damage was caused by flood, and is therefore excluded.  Policyholders, on the other hand, are trying to establish that a good portion of the damage wasn’t

I recently got interviewed by Ed Beeson of the Newark Star-Ledger as part of his article about the looming Superstorm Sandy insurance coverage litigation.  The insurance industry has definitely circled the wagons, and the first suits are now being filed.  There will be a lot of battles over causation (e.g., wind versus flood), as well