A significant part of our firm’s work focuses on representing property owners in claims against their insurance carriers. We regularly counsel and represent property owners, including condominium associations, in claims involving weather/wind and nonweather water damage, fire/smoke damage, and damage to common elements such as pools, parking garages, elevators, roofs, etc.
Only rarely do such cases go to trial, but in recent months our firm’s insurance attorneys secured jury verdicts in favor of claimants involving very typical nonweather water losses. Shareholders Susan C. Odess, Stuart Sobel and Nicholas Siegfried, together with associate Zachary T. Smith, recently pursued cases against State Farm and Universal over their refusal to adequately cover damages stemming from broken water pipes and leaks.
The three Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury verdicts we secured in these suits are excellent examples of the types of cases that our firm’s insurance attorneys successfully handle on behalf of our clients. We will now pursue the recovery of our attorneys’ fees and costs against these carriers. Of equal import, we will be filing separate actions on behalf of the policyholders for all of the prevailing cases to assert a claim for bad faith. While these claims involved homeowners, we often secure similar results for condominium associations and HOAs for comparable water-loss claims.