California Insurance Commissioner Urges Insurance Companies to Cover Wildfire Property Losses Without Requiring a Home Inventory
California Insurance Commissioner Urges Insurance Companies to Cover Wildfire Property Losses Without Requiring a Home Inventory

October 3, 2020 – SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In response to California’s latest destructive fires, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is requesting that insurance companies help wildfire survivors who are overwhelmed with the task of navigating the claims process by providing up to 100 percent of personal…
As Climate Impacts Worsen, Homeowners Struggle to Find Affordable Insurance
As Climate Impacts Worsen, Homeowners Struggle to Find Affordable Insurance

Insurance is getting harder for some U.S. homeowners to obtain as a result of the impacts of climate change, according to reporting from The Huffington Post and Marketplace. Many insurance companies are choosing not to renew homeowner policies in areas with increased risks of wildfires,…
California wildfires: What you need to know about insurance for your losses
California wildfires: What you need to know about insurance for your losses

As still more wildfires rage in the Bay Area, many wonder how to handle the practicalities if they must evacuate — or worse, if their home is lost or damaged. Here are answers to common questions about insurance, money and real estate. Q: I had…
Sonoma County fire survivors embrace roles as guides and counselors to latest wave of disaster victims
Sonoma County fire survivors embrace roles as guides and counselors to latest wave of disaster victims

Vita Iskander had no intention of taking a leadership role when she walked into Santa Rosa’s Unitarian Universalist church on Oct. 25, 2017. Seventeen days earlier, her home in Hidden Valley Estates had burned in the Tubbs fire. Still in something of a daze, she…
‘It looked like a nuclear bomb went off:’ words of advice from a Tubbs fire survivor
‘It looked like a nuclear bomb went off:’ words of advice from a Tubbs fire survivor

PHOENIX, Ore. — Janet Reisner woke up to the smell of smoke on Oct. 8, 2017, when she looked out the window, she saw fireballs landing in her backyard. Her home of 20 years in Santa Rosa, Calif. was one of the 5600 structures lost in…
Dealing With Wildfire Damage? These Free Resources Can Help You File Your Insurance Claim
Dealing With Wildfire Damage? These Free Resources Can Help You File Your Insurance Claim

The trauma of a wildfire is compounded only by the stress of trying to figure out if you’re covered under your insurance and how to collect under those policies for any damage to your property. Fortunately, ample free help is available, from coverage information to…
California Insurance Commissioner Urges Insurance Companies to Cover Reimbursement Costs for Those Displaced During Wildfires
California Insurance Commissioner Urges Insurance Companies to Cover Reimbursement Costs for Those Displaced During Wildfires

September 7, 2020 – LOS ANGELES, Calif. – To assist Californians displaced by the current and recent wildfires throughout the state, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara issued a Notice to all California property and casualty insurance companies urging them to cover Additional Living Expenses (ALE) for…
It’s fire season. Here are three ways to prepare financially
It’s fire season. Here are three ways to prepare financially

Good morning. I’m Rachel Schnalzer, the L.A. Times Business section’s audience engagement editor, back with our weekly newsletter. While the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic are the usual focus of the newsletter, I’m pivoting this week to discuss another crisis facing Californians: the wildfires…
Insurance increasingly unaffordable as climate change brings more disasters
Insurance increasingly unaffordable as climate change brings more disasters

There was a moment in 2016, just after putting an offer on a house in the Oakland Hills in California, that Jamye Alexandra wondered if it was a mistake. Not because of the house itself, or the location, but because the insurance company the previous…
Statewide town hall to address wildfire assistance and insurance resources
Statewide town hall to address wildfire assistance and insurance resources

Join Cal OES Director, Mark Ghilarducci, CA Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and United Policyholders Executive Director, Amy Bach for a Statewide Virtual Town Hall on wildfires assistance and insurance resources available to renters and homeowners. With many communities experiencing evacuations, loss of homes and the…
Insurance Commissioner to Investigate Key Wildfire Insurance Issues Under Legislation Headed to Senate Floor, says Consumer Watchdog
Insurance Commissioner to Investigate Key Wildfire Insurance Issues Under Legislation Headed to Senate Floor, says Consumer Watchdog

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara would investigate and develop solutions to ensure affordable, accessible insurance for homeowners in wildfire areas and report back to the legislature, under amendments to AB 2167 adopted by the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday.…
JPML Won’t Centralize All COVID-19 Insurance Cases
JPML Won’t Centralize All COVID-19 Insurance Cases

Law360 (August 12, 2020, 4:46 PM EDT) — The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation rejected Wednesday two petitions to centralize hundreds of cases filed by businesses seeking insurance coverage for losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but indicated that centralization could still be appropriate for cases…
MDL Panel Considers Consolidation of COVID-19 Business Interruption Claims
MDL Panel Considers Consolidation of COVID-19 Business Interruption Claims

On July 30, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation held a Zoom hearing on a motion filed by plaintiffs’ lawyers to consolidate hundreds of business interruption claims filed across the country. The Panel permitted a number of plaintiffs’ counsel and two insurers’ counsel to each…
JPML Questions If One Size Fits All For Virus Cases
JPML Questions If One Size Fits All For Virus Cases

Law360 (July 30, 2020, 4:43 PM EDT) — A member of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation questioned Thursday whether key business interruption policy language could be construed the same way under the laws of all 50 states as the panel mulled requests to centralize…
Dozens of attorneys primed to make or break the case for novel COVID-19 business interruption MDL
Dozens of attorneys primed to make or break the case for novel COVID-19 business interruption MDL

(Reuters) – At least 40 attorneys have signed up to argue Thursday as the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation weighs petitions to create an MDL for nearly 270 lawsuits seeking Business Interruption (BI) insurance coverage for losses from coronavirus contamination or government orders restricting their…
Car insurers gave everyone a pandemic discount. Now some are raising rates
Car insurers gave everyone a pandemic discount. Now some are raising rates

It was a relief for most people when vehicle insurers said a few months ago they’d offer temporary discounts to reflect the fact that few of us were driving because of the pandemic. In most cases, those discounts are now in the rearview mirror, meaning…
6th Circuit Approves Class Action for Ky. Underpayments by State Farm
6th Circuit Approves Class Action for Ky. Underpayments by State Farm

A federal appellate court has cleared the way for a class-action lawsuit to proceed against State Farm Fire and Casualty Insurance Co. that may force the insurer to correct underpayments paid to some 65,000 policyholders. A 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a district…
All Roads Lead to the JPMDL: Another COVID-19 Business Interruption Declaratory Judgment Is Stayed Pending MDL Decision
All Roads Lead to the JPMDL: Another COVID-19 Business Interruption Declaratory Judgment Is Stayed Pending MDL Decision

Insurers nationwide are awaiting the forthcoming decision of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation JPMDL) on consolidating COVID-19 business interruption coverage lawsuits. In the meantime, some federal courts are staying proceedings, declining to rule on fully-briefed motions and deferring decisions that could bring clarity to…