WALKER & CRAWFORD, PC

Homeowners should take the following steps when dealing with their insurance company:

Take Documentation. Make a comprehensive inventory of the household items lost in the storm, and keep receipts from emergency repairs and temporary housing costs.

Track Communications with Your Insurance Company. Keep a log of all communications with your insurance carrier, including anytime they fail to return a call or miss a scheduled appointment.

Be Careful What You Sign. Do not sign anything you do not fully understand. Make sure all documents are explained thoroughly so that you know what you are signing and how it will affect your claim.

Ask for Proof. If your insurer tells you that you are not covered, require them to offer proof. The burden is on the carrier to point to the exclusion in your policy.

Complain if Necessary. If you believe that you are being treated unfairly by your insurance carrier, file a complaint with the Texas Department of Insurance and/or the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Contact Texas Watch’s Ike Insurance Hotline at 1-888-738-4226 for assistance in filing complaints.

Homeowners are encouraged to be vigilant when dealing with their insurance company after major disasters such as Hurricane Ike.  Insurance abuse proved to be rampant after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and victims of Hurricane Ike must take steps to protect themselves from unfair insurance practices.  One way homeowners may protect themselves is by contacting the attorneys at Walker & Crawford, P.C., who are standing by 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer  questions concerning storm-related insurance claims.

Should AIG policy holders be entitled to an offset?

AIG policy holders paid premiums for their insurance policy and then as tax payers paid again for the bailout of AIG.

Following the logic of insurance company offsets, AIG policy holders should get and offset for paying twice.

Why do insurance companies have rules that favor the carrier and rules that work against the policy holder? All the rules are in the carriers favor.

Enough is enough.

Now, that the Hurricane is over and the lights have come back on, the second wave of disaster and disappointment strikes. Homeowners across the State of Texas are asking themselves…..”Is my insurance company going to abandon me?”

Homeowners are finding that, despite years of paying outrageously high insurance premiums, their insurance companies are not the good friends and neighbors they claimed to be.

If your homeowners insurance company has denied your claim, or is refusing to pay what’s fair to fix or repair your home, then call us now at 713-552-1117.

Now, that the Hurricane is over and the lights have come back on, the second wave of disaster and disappointment strikes. Homeowners across the State of Texas are asking themselves…..”Is my insurance company going to abandon me?”

Homeowners are finding that, despite years of paying outrageously high insurance premiums, their insurance companies are not the good friends and neighbors they claimed to be.

If your homeowners insurance company has denied your claim, or is refusing to pay what’s fair to fix or repair your home, then call us now at 713-552-1117.

Property owners may be entitled to an advance from the insurance company and assistance with housing. Business property owners may have coverage that they are not aware such as business interruption insurance.

CALL TODAY TO FIND OUT WHERE YOU STAND WITH YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY, AND WHAT YOUR RIGHTS ARE. 713-552-1117

WALKER & CRAWFORD P.C.

1924 Portsmouth, Houston TX 77098

800-732-2934-713-552-1117

www. walkertexaslawyer.com

HURRICANE-RAVAGED GULF COAST

TARGETED BY INSURANCE COMPANY LOBBYISTS

Consumer Group Condemns U.S. Chamber of Commerce
For Again Attacking Struggling Gulf Coast Region

The Center for Justice & Democracy has condemned the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s richest corporate lobby group, for its seventh annual state liability rankings report, which inexplicably targets for criticism every state in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf

Coast region, suggesting that these states are bad for businesses.

The report, which is based on nothing more than the views of corporate lawyers - people hired to defend companies accused of wrongdoing like insurance companies who have unfairly denied hurricane claims - ranks three Gulf Region states among the bottom 5 states: Louisiana (49), Mississippi (48), and Alabama (47). This low ranking of Gulf Coast states began in 2006, just months after Hurricane Katrina hit.

“First, and most obviously, expecting corporate lawyers to render a fair and unbiased view of jurisdictions where they have had to defend misconduct or lost cases is patently absurd,” said Joanne Doroshow, Executive Director of the Center for Justice & Democracy. “But also, for three years now, the U.S. Chamber has inexplicably decided to target the struggling Gulf Coast region for criticism as it tries to recover from one of the worst disasters in our nation’s history, which killed thousands, displaced millions, and left hundreds of thousands without jobs or income. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce should be helping this battered area instead of launching attacks on it. These states are working hard to recover and bring businesses back, with some significant success according to recent employment figures.”

The Chamber also tags Los Angeles, CA and Cook County, IL as the so-called “least fair” communities. Unlike the general population, approximately 95 out of 100 (or more) of top corporate lawyers – the type of individuals selected by the Chamber to rank jurisdictions - are white.* According to the U.S. Census, Los Angeles County, Calif., had the largest minority population in the country in 2006; Cook County had the largest black population, followed by Los Angeles County. Said Doroshow, “It is one thing to refuse to attempt to survey a representative cross section of the legal community for this survey. But it is another thing to rely exclusively on the opinions of a group that has been specifically recognized as excluding minorities from its pool. And when those polled then find disproportionate fault with jurisdictions in minority communities, the results of such a survey should be highly suspect.”

When an injured victim who needs medical care “wins” the case and obtains compensation, where does the money go?

When a jury awards compensation to cover a victims’ medical expenses, the money does not go to the victim at all. It goes to health care providers to pay for the medical care the patient did not need until the person was injured. In other words, fully paying for all medical care means fully compensating the medical industry for the treatment of the injuries that sometimes, as in the case of medical malpractice, the industry itself has inflicted.

What is the discriminatory impact of limiting non-economic damages and paying only full economic damages?

In most cases, lost earnings make up the largest part of the economic damages that go directly to the injured victim. Essentially, then, limiting non-economic damages results in valuing the destruction of an individual’s life based on what that person would have earned in the marketplace but for the injury. The lives of low wage earners, children, seniors, and women who do not work outside the home, are thus deemed worth less than the life of businessmen. Capping non-economic damages would promote a kind of caste system by branding entire classes of low- or non-earners in our society as worth less than their wealthier counterparts.

Basing the value of someone’s life on what they could earn in the marketplace says to seniors, for example, that despite having spent their lives paying their dues and playing by the rules, now, due to the negligence of a wrongdoer, they have lost what their years have earned them: the prospect of an enjoyable, vigorous and happy old age. Is a stay-at-home mom less valuable than a mother who goes to work in an office? There is more to a human being than the amount of that person’s weekly paycheck.

What kinds of injuries do non-economic damages compensate for and why are non-economic damages so important?

The joy of life - what makes it really worth living - is not the earning of money to pay to others for life’s necessities. When a person is seriously injured, the greatest loss is the loss of the enjoyment of life, the pleasure, the satisfaction or the utility that human beings derive from life, separate and apart from earnings. These are non-economic injuries.

What is truly valuable to us as human beings is our ability to live life on a daily basis free of any debilitating physical or emotional problems that diminish our capacity to enjoy life and compromise our sense of self-worth, dignity, and integrity.

The pleasure of living lies in our ability to participate fully in the give and take of marriage, family and career. It lies in our experience of the ordinary day: waking up without pain; drinking a cup of coffee without someone’s help; dressing a child in mismatched clothes that she insists on wearing, rather than have that child dress you; walking to the bus stop or subway in the brisk air, rather than being wheeled to a lift van; accomplishing a job well done at work, rather than being limited to a make-work project for the disabled; deciding what to make for dinner and preparing it; these and thousands of everyday things are what we live for.

In addition to physical pain and suffering, the seriously injured victim suffers great mental anguish, anxiety and often shame at being transposed from an able-bodied working person respected for his or her accomplishments and contributions to others to an individual who is dependent on others. A seriously injured person is compromised in his or her ability to make decisions and realize them, to take independent action, and to reciprocate when someone helps them. A seriously injured person is also deprived of the pleasure of engaging as equals with other people, including family members, or participating in athletic activities, social and civic events, hobbies, volunteer activities and other interpersonal interactions.

These are sufferings which seriously injured people encounter each time they attempt to perform any of the myriad tasks of daily life the rest of us take for granted. This is the loss that the law describes as “non-economic,” and which goes to the very essence of our quality of life.

Over 76,000 claims for damage have been filed with the Texas-backed Windstorm Insurance Association.  The Association is anticipating paying policy holders billions of dollars in loss compensation.  

Ultimately, the amount paid will depend on whether claims are found to be wind or flood damage.  The association will pay for wind damage, but not damage caused by the surge.  Surge damage is considered to be flood damage.