Archive: June 2018

It is easy to be bombarded by information here and there about how divorce leads to more complicated financial circumstances. However, if you do it right—and work with the right attorney—you can complete the process without placing a financial strain on your family. Below, we discuss some of the pointers to keep in mind as you approach the divorce process:

Interview Several Different Attorneys

 Make sure that you do your homework when it comes to selecting your divorce attorney. Don’t just take one person’s recommendation or work with the first person who comes up online; instead, interview several different attorneys and note who is paying attention, providing you with detailed information on how billing works, etc.

Trust your intuition when it comes to deciding who you are comfortable with. If you sign an engagement letter, make sure that you and your attorney are very clear on what the hourly rate will be. Also make sure to ask whether the attorney works with any junior attorneys and/or paralegals, as that can sometimes lower the overall costs.

According to recent reports, the top 20 property insurers in Florida were served with more than 10,000 lawsuits over hurricane Irma claim denials just between January and March, reflecting a more than 61 percent increase from last year.

Universal Property & Casualty Co.—Florida’s largest insurer—noted that the company has received close to 80,000 Hurricane Irma-related claims, including many from Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties. In addition, Irma-related claims account for close to 60 percent of all new claim-related litigation filed against Citizens Property Insurance Co. (the second largest insurer in Florida).

Inadequate Recovery Also Remains an Issue

Not all of these claims involve outright denials; a good percentage also involve challenges to the companies’ decisions about the scope of damages, arguing that the amount paid to homeowners was inadequate. A good percentage also involved the determination that policyholders were owed nothing at all because the loss calculated did not surpass the policy deductible.

It seems like every day, there are disputes between homeowners associations and its members, even though these disputes are supposed to be avoided by specific, detailed covenants and restrictions agreements residents agree to when they buy into these associations.

There are always going to be circumstances under which homeowners associations and property managers must take emergency action in order to secure the safety of the entire community. However, as highlighted by a recent news article, residents aren’t always happy about these actions, and sometimes resort to suing the association.

This Particular Proposal

In this particular circumstance, the association found itself in need of taking traffic enforcement into its own hands and proposed sanctioning residents if they were caught speeding because the local police department could not possibly manage the issue on its own, given the breadth of their jurisdiction. Under this proposal, repeat offenders could even have the bar codes that get them into the community suspended, forcing them to wait for a security guard to let them in. A first offense would simply produce a warning, but any other subsequent offense could result in a resident’s barcode being suspended.

A lawsuit that concluded this spring highlights an important potential liability for homeowners associations around the country: playgrounds. One homeowners’ association in particular was hit with a $20 million jury award after a teenager was injured on the property’s playground.

Reportedly, the 42-pound crossbar of the swing set fell on the boy sitting on the swing set due to corrosion at the connection points, causing him serious injuries. Reportedly, not only had the homeowners association previously experienced three swing set failures on this playground, but they also did not arrange for any inspections or regular maintenance.  Unfortunately, the homeowners association only had $2 million in liability insurance coverage, and $10 million out of the total $20 million award was entirely attributed to punitive damages.

Previous Incidents plus Failure to Maintain Equals Trouble