Webinar Wednesday: A Breach is Just the Beginning: Potential Liability for Mishandling Electronic Data

THIS WEEK WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING WEBINAR:

No cost to attend

A Breach is Just the Beginning:

Potential Liability for Mishandling Electronic Data

The devastating impact of a data breach can be far-reaching.  Organizations such as IT vendors or even law firms, whose lapse in security or other internal failures ultimately permitted a breach to occur, may feel the impact, too, when faced with liability claims due to their role in an incident.  Attend this webinar for discussion on the nature and extent of these “other” claims that may arise out of a data breach, including strategies for evaluating and defending them.

Date: Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM EDT

*Please note: This posting is for informational purposes only, as a courtesy to our reading audience. Provencher & Company has in no way been compensated for the sharing of this information. The use of or enrollment in any classes, seminars, training, etc. in no way constitutes or implies any endorsement of the provider of said programs. Provencher & Company shares no financial obligation to attendee or organizer.

Getting "Hammered" In Court

Attached is an interesting court case received by Cozen O’Connor.  The case provides guidance on when an insurer should, in good faith, accept a plaintiff’s settlement offer. The case itself is a bit unusual, but the circumstances could apply to any of our cases. There is no need to accept an unreasonable and/or unsubstantiated offer to settle, but it is always prudent to get advice from your defense counsel before making your final decision. 

Contributed by:
Jim Abbott

Staying Focused for Success

As Provencher & Company continues to grow I feel it’s important that we all stay focused on being strong, exuding positive energy and always doing the right thing.  Recently I gave away my copy of 9 Beliefs of Remarkably Successful People.  I truly missed not having that document next to my desk as I find I often refer to this to "keep myself in check".  That made me realize we have some new folks in our organization that I've not shared it with. 

I recently received the attached document that was a reprint from the Washington Post, Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do.  This is very similar to the original document; both are excellent.

Please take the time to read what is said here in these two documents; these are my core values that I hope you will share.  You have a choice, every day, in how you approach your life and work; it’s up to you to make it positive.

 
9 Beliefs of Remarkably Successful People

Things Mentally Strong People DON'T Do

Enjoy and Make it a Great Day!!

Dave

Contributed by:

David B Kurland

Inside The Eye: National Hurricane Center Blog

The 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season is upon us!

The National Hurricane Center has a new blog for this season.  “Inside The Eye” is the new official blog of the National Hurricane Center.  The Center is again advocating hurricane preparedness for all coastal residents and recommends that even non-coastal residents be familiar with evacuation routes and designated shelters.

As we all prepare for the current season, stay in touch with the center for updates, forecasts and other information that is necessary to ensure your safety during these catastrophic events.  The NHC also can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.

Follow Provencher & Company On:

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Report Writing the Provencher Way: Part 1 - Introduction

Introduction

At Provencher & Company, we hold ourselves to a high standard for quality of work, timely services and reasonable billing expenses for our clients. We all benefit from having an excellent reputation, in part, due to the fine work produced by our adjusters.

The intent of this series is to describe a standardized content look for Provencher & Company captioned report. Within this series, you will see that we have defined the purpose/meaning of each caption and provided an example of the report writing style and expected technical writing level of the content. 

For the purposes of this series, the word "client" is meant to be the person or business that gave us the loss assignment. This could be an insurance company, reinsurance company, MGA, broker, self-insured business or similar.

In our ongoing effort to maintain and continuously improve our business, we have taken the time to document proper report writing specifics to Provencher & Company. You may identify with one or more of the observations listed below:

• Most of us learned report writing as a young adjuster on small losses.
• Most of us are not young adjusters anymore!
• The loss you are reporting on represents substantial amounts of money to be paid out by our clients. Some of the money paid by them is shared between us for services rendered.
• Large loss reports in particular, are circulated to Vice Presidents, CEOs, and sometimes to reinsurer or even a law firm.
• These individuals are usually educated, experienced, articulate people used to reading material on the level of the Wall Street Journal. The makes you a published, well read, author! Bravo!
• Poorly written reports will simply not be read. Or worse.... they will. 
• Provencher & Company has received many re-assignments as a result of poorly written reports from other firms. Sometimes, we recognize the original adjuster's name. Many are good adjusters and technicians, but apparently, bad or careless report writers. 

We have heard that an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.  If you can deliver both, your reputation, the quality and amount of claim assignments you receive will grow.  The best compliment you can receive is when one of our clients gives us a new loss and asks for you by name!

Consider the underlying purpose of the report is to establish Your Credibility!

Coming next week....

Part 2: Report Handling

Contributed by:
Julie Rock-Chatellier

Webinar Wednesday: Eyewitness Testimony and Its Impact on Adjustments

THIS WEEK WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING WEBINAR: Not only is this an excellent webinar for liability adjusters, it is actually good for property folks, too.  It is important in subrogation as well as determining the cause of loss.

Eyewitness Testimony and Its Impact on Adjustments Join us for a Webinar on June 12, 2014 Please register using your Provencher email address to register  as we are an Affiliate Member. Space is limited. Join David Curry, Ph.D., Vice President, Human Performance Sciences and Technology for ITC Experts, for our next webinar on Eyewitness Testimony and Its Impact on Adjustments. Judges and juries oftentimes regard eyewitnesses to accidents or incidents as a sort of gold standard as to what occurred. The great credence they give to the testimony of such eyewitnesses largely ignores well-known limitations to the human perceptual system. The problem is further compounded by a lack of understanding of how the mind retains information and how it evolves over time. This presentation is designed to acquaint the audience with some of the issues which affect or limit the perception of the individual at the time of an event, as well as make attendees aware of how and why memory for the event evolves over time in response to a wide variety of factors. This presentation is particularly timely, since judges in New Jersey are now required to provide this type of information to juries in criminal cases, likely opening the door to similar testimony in civil litigation as well. Learning Objectives By attending this session, you will: - Review human perceptual limitations and aberrations that may affect an individual's recall of an accident/incident - Describe memory limitations, misinterpretations, and alterations that may affect an individual's recall of critical details of a witnessed accident/incident - Evaluate how limitations can most easily be identified, addressed, and handled during investigation and potential litigation - Demonstrate why scientifically-obtained physical evidence is often more valid than witness testimony ** Registration is limited to 1000 participants ** Title: Eyewitness Testimony and Its Impact on Adjustments Date: Thursday, June 12, 2014 Time: 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM CST (12:00 - 1:15 PM EST / 10:00 - 11:15 AM MST / 9:00 - 10:15 AM PST) Cost: Free for PLRB & LIRB Members and PLRB Affiliate Members Please register using your Provencher email address as we are an Affiliate Member. After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. Please note there are no adjuster CE credits earned with this webinar series. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/920089862 System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer Mobile attendees Required: iPhone/iPad/Android smartphone or Android tablet *Please note: This posting is for informational purposes only, as a courtesy to our reading audience. Provencher & Company has in no way been compensated for the sharing of this information. The use of or enrollment in any classes, seminars, training, etc. in no way constitutes or implies any endorsement of the provider of said programs. Provencher & Company shares no financial obligation to attendee or organizer.

Recommended Conference: 2014 LCA Educational Conference & Expo

2014 LCA Educational Conference & Expo Save the Date . . . .  2014 LCA Educational Conference & Expo will be held June 4-6, 2014 at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center in Baton Rouge, LA. Click here to register to attend the Conference with a Credit Card. Exhibitors - Click here to download the Exhibitor Package. Make your Room Reservation at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center in Baton Rouge. Call 1-800-955-76962 and let them know you are with Louisiana Claims Association to get the $129 room rate. Conference Handouts - Click here to download Louisiana Claims Association LCA is a non-profit association for all professionals in the claims industry. Members include insurance agents, claims representatives, third party administrators, industrial relations managers, risk managers, administrators of self-insurance programs, defense attorneys, private investigators and all personnel involved in the handling of insurance claims. LCA hosts an educational conference and expo each year, and they sponsor local workshops for continuing education at each of the local associations. Mission Statement: As the premier claims association in Louisiana, the Louisiana Claims Association is dedicated to promoting the highest ethical and professional claims handling standards in the insurance industry through leadership in education, member/chapter coordination and support. Renew your 2014 Membership Today! The Louisiana Claims Association 2014 Membership Campaign is underway. Click here to download the 2014 Membership Application. Click here to join using a credit card. Contact Us Louisiana Claims Association P O Box 14806 Baton Rouge, LA 70898 Phone: 225-291-2806 Fax: 225-291-2811
Copyright Policy

Sinkholes: Can you handle it?

 Photograph: MCT/Landov/Barcroft Media

Sinkholes seem to be popping up, or should we say down, everywhere! Would you know what to do with a sinkhole claim? Do you need to have it reported to a local government agency? Who decided that it IS a sinkhole? Did you know that a geotechnical engineer or geologist must determine that the ground movement was a sinkhole? 

This and more information can be found in the Sinkhole guide developed by Cozen O’Conner, found here. 

One of the latest sinkhole stories coming out of Florida.... sure hope Legoland® doesn't disappear into the ground; the place is pretty neat!



Have a great day!
Julie

Contributed by:

Julie Rock-Chatellier

LEA Spring Meeting June 2014

************************

Only 8 Spots left for the 

Rod Birmingham Memorial Golf Outing

The LEA Block at the hotel is SOLD OUT

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Registration Information for the 

LEA June 2014 Spring Meeting:

Overhead Expense and General Conditions

When dealing with a large loss there are two categories of expenses we expect to see on an estimate. The first is the general contractor’s overhead. This category includes indirect expenses that are not readily chargeable to any particular job.  This expense represents the contractor’s cost of doing business and his fixed expenses.  He recovers these expenses by sharing them proportionately across all his projects.

These overhead expenses represent his main office expense, including rent, supplies, utilities, telephone insurance, staff salaries and other normal operating expenses. Operating expenses will include legal, accounting, marketing, travel and depreciation expense. These costs will be incurred regardless of any particular job.  Overhead on insurance estimates typically run 10% but may go to 15% in heavily developed urban environments; they are negotiable and may be reduced to 8% or less on very large claims.

In contrast to overhead expense, General Conditions represent costs to the general contractor that are specific to a particular project.  These are items that do not actually get built into the work and are temporary expenses to facilitate the work.  This will include project specific supervision, site safety expenses, temporary utilities, temporary office facilities, cranes or job-site vehicles, security, sanitation, site cleanup, lighting and weather protection when necessary and signage.  These are temporary and project-specific costs that can be charged directly to the project but are not actually incorporated into the repair itself.

Bear in mind that General Conditions are estimated at a fixed cost on the estimate. If the contractor spends more it generally comes out of his pocket unless he can convince the adjuster there was a hidden or unforeseeable cost. If he spends less, the savings go to his pocket, not off the estimate.  So there is a built-in incentive for the contractor to fully allow for all potential costs. The adjuster needs to be aware of costs that are either a double-dip component of a direct repair cost, excessive time projections or of questionable necessity. 


Contributed by:
Jerry Provencher

Wednesday Webinar: Retail, Restaurant & Hospitality: Defending Associates Relative to Criminal & Intentional Acts

THIS WEEK WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING WEBINAR:

No cost to attend

Retail, Restaurant & Hospitality: Defending Associates Relative to Criminal & Intentional Acts

In this webinar, we will examine the coverage and defense issues that arise when an insured’s employee commits crimes involving property loss and personal injury while on the job or on the work site.  Specifically, we will consider how “Who is an Insured”,  the Intentional Acts Exclusion and the Innkeeper’s Liability Endorsement apply in various situations.  We will look at the best practice for handling claims of those employees who are covered under RORs and how defense counsel should defend those employees.

Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM EDT

*Please note: This posting is for informational purposes only, as a courtesy to our reading audience. Provencher & Company has in no way been compensated for the sharing of this information. The use of or enrollment in any classes, seminars, training, etc. in no way constitutes or implies any endorsement of the provider of said programs. Provencher & Company shares no financial obligation to attendee or organizer.

Hurricane Season Adjuster To-Do List

While it's nothing new for those of us in the claims world, the official start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season is

June 1st

That Means: It's 5 Days Away! 

At Provencher & Company, we trust our adjusters are as prepared for the upcoming storm season as the insured is advised to be. However, we often get so wrapped up in our daily claim work that we neglect to prepare ourselves personally for a storm deployment.

As such, we have compiled a quick "to-do" list for our adjusters to ensure each of you are ready to go when you get the call to deploy:

1. Prepare your home in advance. Do you live in a "potential threat zone"? Don't be caught in Florida working a storm and have your home unprepared back in Texas with a CAT 3 headed that way.

2. Prepare your vehicle. Tires good for travel? Routine maintenance done? 

3. Using a RV during deployment? Prepare it for the trip too. Routine maintenance, stock supplies, etc.

4. Prepare your computer. It happens every year..... at least one computer crashes in the field and the adjuster panics. Don't be the person that loses all your work. Make sure you are up-to-date on anti-virus software and have an external hard drive. 

5. W5 Claim Management. Learn it, use it, love it! Provencher & Company has a comprehensive claims management system that we have worked hard over many years to develop into all that we want & need. Use it - its to your benefit. Don't worry about losing your photos or estimates. Once you create them, save them to the claim file and there is no fear of the documents being lost. 

6. Estimating Software. The middle of a CAT is not the time to learn a new estimating software. If you are contemplating make a change, please do so NOW! Learn the software prior to having to handle 200 claims in a 2 week period! While Provencher & Company does not currently require one estimating software over another, some of our clients do require Xactimate only. We strongly encourage those adjusters who will be deploying for CAT duty to use Xactimate as it will increase our ability to place you during deployment. 

7. Photo Required. We need a photo for every field or desk adjuster on file. These might be used to produce a CAT ID if you work for us in the field. There are also occasions where our clients want to learn more about a file reviewer. We will be sending out a reminder notice in a few days to those still missing photos. Please supply an unprotected Jpeg file so we can resize it to fit if needed. Send any new photo (or if you want to replace your old photo) to hr@provencherclaims.com. 

8. Updated Personnel File. Please make sure you have completed a 2014 Adjuster File Update Form. If not, we need this! It includes your emergency contact information, state licenses, etc. Heaven Forbid, but if you fall off a roof, we need to know who to contact in case of an emergency! Unfortunately, it happens, even to the most experienced of adjusters! Ask Jerry!


Contributed by:
Julie Rock-Chatellier

Wednesday Webinar: Bulletproofing Your Claim Investigation Against Bad Faith

THIS WEEK WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING WEBINAR:

No cost to attend

Bulletproofing Your Claim Investigation Against Bad Faith

Many bad-faith claims flow from allegations of deficient adjuster investigations. Plaintiff attorneys will examine an adjuster's fact-finding process months or years after the fact, compare it with "ideal" approaches and argue that the claim decision-making was flawed by a an adequate, biased or superficial investigation. This webinar will examine specific tips and strategies insurers and TPAs can adopt to insulate themselves from such claims through conducting reasonable investigations.

Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM EDT

*Please note: This posting is for informational purposes only, as a courtesy to our reading audience. Provencher & Company has in no way been compensated for the sharing of this information. The use of or enrollment in any classes, seminars, training, etc. in no way constitutes or implies any endorsement of the provider of said programs. Provencher & Company shares no financial obligation to attendee or organizer.

Webinar Wednesday: Don't Worry, Dear, They Have To Pay You Even Though I Caused The Loss: When Must An Innocent Co-Insured Be Paid?

THIS WEEK WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING WEBINAR:

No cost to attend

Don't Worry, Dear, They Have To Pay You Even
Though I Caused The Loss: When Must An Innocent
Co-Insured Be Paid?

Insurance fraud investigation focuses on establishing whether an insured is responsible for the claimed loss, or otherwise misrepresented or concealed material facts. But if it is established that fraud was committed, that is not the end of the inquiry. Depending on the policy language and the law in the jurisdiction, other insureds still may be entitled to payment. This webinar will discuss the law in various states as to when innocent co-insureds are entitled to payment, policy language that may impact that determination and related issues.

Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM EDT

*Please note: This posting is for informational purposes only, as a courtesy to our reading audience. Provencher & Company has in no way been compensated for the sharing of this information. The use of or enrollment in any classes, seminars, training, etc. in no way constitutes or implies any endorsement of the provider of said programs. Provencher & Company shares no financial obligation to attendee or organizer.