Denise H. Sze is the General Counsel and Executive General Adjuster of Blue Oaks Public Adjusting in Southern California and the General Counsel for Hawaii Public Adjusters of the Hawaiian Islands. Denise is licensed to practice law in both Hawaii and California and is a Principal of Onyx Law Group.
Denise utilizes her background and experience in law practicing in multiple states in first party insurance bad faith property matters over the last 18 years of her career litigating unresolved claims and teaching the adjusting process through continuing education to adjusters nationwide. She brings this experience to claims adjusting at Hawaii Public Adjusters and Blue Oaks Public Adjusting. During her time as a civil litigator, Denise worked at nationally renowned law firms specializing in representing policyholders. She represented hundreds of California and Nationwide business owners and individual policyholders against their insurance companies, helping them recover substantial payouts on their property and casualty insurance claims from multiple insurers across the country.
Representing policyholders for almost the entirety of her career, she has worked matters on Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Harvey and multiple wildfire events in California including the Woolsey Fire and Getty Fires and now on the Maui Lahaina Wildfire.
Denise has offices in both Maui and in Los Angeles and travels between. She attended the University of California at Los Angeles, graduating with a degree in Sociology and Business Administration in 1996. Shortly thereafter she attended Loyola Law School graduating in 2001, working internationally in the Beijing office of a large international firm before returning to California in 2002 where she began actively bringing Insurance bad faith case on behalf of the insured through UM/UIM claims. From 2014 to 2019, Ms. Sze was the General Counsel for the California Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (CAPIA). She remains actively involved on the specially formed CAPIA Executive Committee for legislative matters impacting insureds in the State of California and is the President Elect for CAPIA’s November 2023- November 2024 term.
As a passionate consumer advocate, she is also entrusted with the title of the California Director of the Legislative Committee for the American Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (AAPIA) where in turn she observes and reports on any changes in California legislation to AAPIA. Ms. Sze is an active member of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters and sat on multiple committees which include the Educational and Ethics committees. She has traveled the country working on cases in multiple jurisdictions and teaches seminars on presenting and negotiating insurance claims. Ms. Sze is an active member of consumer protection organizations groups such as the Consumer Attorneys of California, CAALA, amongst others. An active member both California and Hawaii bars she actively practices within both jurisdictions.
We had a water leak and there are going to be pretty major repairs going on for at least 3 months. They have to replace all the flooring, sheetrock, and the entire kitchen is unusable. We asked insurance about loss of use and they said…
I’m in California. I had a total loss fire and I am building back with twice the sq footage then was there before. I understand that they only pay for what was there before but for example the architect doing the plans is one fee…
Thank you Denise Sze for your answer to my previous question. I truly appreciate it. Forgive me for my follow-up question. Another document that the restoration company requires me to sign states that “Contractor will negotiate with your insurance company in an attempt to evaluate…
Hi, I am located in California and worked with a restoration company on a covered water loss that damaged my kitchen. After they completed the remediation/demolition of the kitchen, I’ve discussed with the restoration company that I would like to retain their services for the…
Hello, I am a homeowner in the Palms Nohl Ranch HOA neighborhood in Anaheim Hills, CA. Our HOA has been mismanaged and are now requiring us to pay for fire insurance for the surrounding hazardous land around us. Fire insurance is not the only issue,…
Hi there! After an electrical fire, which led to a total loss of our California home in April, 2021, we still feel as though we have not received a fair settlement from State Farm. We plan to purchase a home elsewhere instead of rebuilding. Our…
When applying depreciation, is an insurer right to add the cost of labour to the cost of materials required to repair a damaged old building, whilst computing the depreciation?
