Quote of the Week

"The corporate model is to drag this on and wear people out. They're probably making tens of millions doing that. They're just flouting the law. They're in the business of making money, not taking care of people."

-- Matt Schultz, Insurance Coordinator for Levin Papantonio Law Firm

Duwayne Escobedo's cover story in this week's Independent News has an update on the Insurance industry's long stall over paying local property damage claims from hurricanes Ivan and Dennis:

Unfortunately, since the Independent News first reported on brewing insurance disasters Sept. 29, for many local citizens with totally destroyed homes the nightmare has not ended. They're still in limbo as insurance companies delay settling their claims despite state law and a major court ruling, Mierzwa vs. the Florida Underwriting Association, which require payment for the full policy amount.

Along the way he reports that, "the Florida Office of Insurance Regulations estimates all but about 50,000 claims have been settled out of nearly 1.7 million from the four hurricanes to devastate Florida in 2004."

"Estimates"? "...the Florida Office of Insurance Regulations estimates?

Eleven months after Hurricane Ivan, and Florida state insurance regulators still can't say with any precision how many claims remain unpaid?

Of course not. For months, the insurance industry and state regulators have been patting each other on the back in public press releases about how hard they've been working and how many claims they've closed. But the numbers have always been suspect. Last December, state Chief Financial Director Tom Gallagher admitted "a lot of these 'closed' cases are going to get opened again."

Read the rest in this week's Independent News.