Homeowners

[PatSo]

What is the name of your state? Missouri

How wealthy do you have to be to "win" in court?

My home burned and a claim was filed. I received no response from the insurance company. After two years, I got them into court and won. It's currently on appeal.

Since I didn't have the means to hire an attorney outright, I hired one on contingency. The price was 40% if if it went to court.

A public adjuster gets 10% and combined with the attorney, that's 50% of the $224,000.00 I won.

Even had I not defaulted on the loan after the first year, that's not enough to repair the house or replace furniture or cover expenses.

A breakdown of the judgment is:
186,000 house
18,600 10% penalty for vexatious refusal to pay a claim
19,400 attorney fees (won't cover him!)

Please, what are my options?
What is the name of your state? MO

 

[ceara19]

What is the name of your state? Missouri

How wealthy do you have to be to "win" in court?

My home burned and a claim was filed. I received no response from the insurance company. After two years, I got them into court and won. It's currently on appeal.

Since I didn't have the means to hire an attorney outright, I hired one on contingency. The price was 40% if if it went to court.

A public adjuster gets 10% and combined with the attorney, that's 50% of the $224,000.00 I won.

Even had I not defaulted on the loan after the first year, that's not enough to repair the house or replace furniture or cover expenses.

A breakdown of the judgment is:
186,000 house
18,600 10% penalty for vexatious refusal to pay a claim
19,400 attorney fees (won't cover him!)

Please, what are my options?
What is the name of your state? MO

What do you mean "what are my options"? You agreed to give an attorney 40% of any money you MAY have won on a lawsuit in exchange for FREE legal services, now you are obligated to hold up your end of the deal. Had you lost you would have owed them nothing. However, since the legal expertise that they provided to you for FREE resulted in you winning the case, I don't see why you are now having a problem with it. Don;t you feel that half of $224,000 is much better then half of NOTHING (which is what you would have probably been awarded had you tried to handle the matter yourself)?

 

[PatSo]

Since you know everything,

you should have known the intent of: What are my options.

I don't begrudge paying the lawyer or anyone else.
What I object to is having to go through this in the first place.
It seems to me that insurance companies should be held accountable, like everyone else.
I should be able to sue for the insurance equivalent of malpractice.
All his fees should have been included in the judgment, not just some of them.
He says you can't sue an insurance company like that.
Why not?
I should not have to suffer simply because an insurance company decides to not pay.
The insurance company caused the problem; they should have to pay.

Are there any more options open to me?

 

[ceara19]

you should have known the intent of: What are my options.

I don't begrudge paying the lawyer or anyone else.
What I object to is having to go through this in the first place.
It seems to me that insurance companies should be held accountable, like everyone else.
I should be able to sue for the insurance equivalent of malpractice.
All his fees should have been included in the judgment, not just some of them.
He says you can't sue an insurance company like that.
Why not?
I should not have to suffer simply because an insurance company decides to not pay.
The insurance company caused the problem; they should have to pay.

Are there any more options open to me?

Your other option would have been to pay the attorney upfront and ask for your legal fees to be reimbursed. Since you chose the contengency route, that is no longer an option.

 

[PatSo]

My 'other' option?

There are only two?

That's twice the options my attorney offered!

Is this really the best this site had to offer?

I got what I paid for this time, that's for sure!

Anyone else?

 

[moburkes]

You do realize that you've only told 1/2 of the story. WHY didn't they respond to your initial claim? WHY had you defaulted on the mortgage? WHY did your house burn to the ground? What type of coverage did you have? Did you have replacement cost or actual cash value? What type of insurance policy was this? With a private insurance company or with the state?

 

[tranquility]

I'm not sure what you're looking for. There are not a lot of legal secrets where you spin around spit on your hand and shake--thus requiring the opponent to pay you undeserved money. You've had your lawsuit. Attorney fees are generally not reimburseable in a contract dispute (Which is what you basically have with your insurance company.) unless it is listed in your contract. Are they? Also, even if the insurance company did something wrong, that seperate tort of "bad faith" is part of the same case or controversey and should have been included in your current suit. Since that is over we have to assume you didn't get anything for bad faith.

 

[alnorth]

If the insurance company was unnecessarily dragging this out and refusing to pay a clearly valid claim, you should have sued the company for bad faith, and possibly attorney's fees if the policy provided for it.

Your attorney may have seen that your case was a winner and asked for contingency instead of a set fee to increase his likely compensation for working the case. Its up to you to either negotiate the contingency fee or insist on paying an upfront fee.

 

[moburkes]

If the insurance company was unnecessarily dragging this out and refusing to pay a clearly valid claim, you should have sued the company for bad faith, and possibly attorney's fees if the policy provided for it.

Your attorney may have seen that your case was a winner and asked for contingency instead of a set fee to increase his likely compensation for working the case. Its up to you to either negotiate the contingency fee or insist on paying an upfront fee.

This post is almost a month old. Let it die gracefully.

 

[PatSo]

Why?

moburkes,
What fault do you find with someone attempting to be helpful, rather than accusatory and mean?

My questions were:
How rich do you have to be to "win" in court?
What are my options ... where do I go from here?

I'm still awaiting answers and maybe, someday someone will offer something.

There is hope of a new lawsuit that will possibly help to recoup some losses, but we'll see.

But don't go yelling at someone who offered something other than a pissy attitude!

Thank you, alnorth, but at the time, contingency was the only option I had.

The insurance company's actions are without foundation and it just seems to me that if and when they do damage in this manner without just cause, it is every bit "malpractice" as if a physician operated on you while under the influence.

I should be compensated to the extent that makes me even with my situation before the fire.

Having to hire an attorney to collect puts me in the hole big time!

 

[alnorth]

The insurance company's actions are without foundation and it just seems to me that if and when they do damage in this manner without just cause, it is every bit "malpractice" as if a physician operated on you while under the influence.

What you call "malpractice" is known as a bad faith lawsuit in the insurance world. Every P&C insurance company fears a bad faith lawsuit, and filing one tends to get their attention immediately, because if the misconduct by the company is egregiously bad, a jury can award punitive damages to punish the company.

 

[moburkes]

moburkes,
What fault do you find with someone attempting to be helpful, rather than accusatory and mean?

My questions were:
How rich do you have to be to "win" in court?
What are my options ... where do I go from here?

I'm still awaiting answers and maybe, someday someone will offer something.

There is hope of a new lawsuit that will possibly help to recoup some losses, but we'll see.

But don't go yelling at someone who offered something other than a pissy attitude!

Thank you, alnorth, but at the time, contingency was the only option I had.

The insurance company's actions are without foundation and it just seems to me that if and when they do damage in this manner without just cause, it is every bit "malpractice" as if a physician operated on you while under the influence.

I should be compensated to the extent that makes me even with my situation before the fire.

Having to hire an attorney to collect puts me in the hole big time!

If you couldn't answer my very valid questions when they were posed a month ago, why would a new post (unless its simply just something that you want to here) be helpful to you now?

By the way - I didn't have a possy attitude. It is common "courtesy" on a forum NOT to bring up "old" posts unless the poster has an additional question. I can't even imagine how "let it die gracefully" is pissy.

 

[PatSo]

There is so little courtesy on this forum, common or otherwise.
A person asks a question and senior members make accusations in all the forums.

I didn't say you had a pissy attitude. I asked you what fault you found with someone attempting to be helpful.

The pissy attitude came mainly from others, none of whom you yelled at. Reread it.

Your questions were not valid questions.

They either called for speculation or were irrelevant to my question.

"You do realize that you've only told 1/2 of the story. WHY didn't they respond to your initial claim? Who knows? WHY had you defaulted on the mortgage? I didn't have enough money. WHY did your house burn to the ground? It didn't. What type of coverage did you have? Homeowners. Did you have replacement cost or actual cash value? Replacement cost. What type of insurance policy was this? Type? With a private insurance company or with the state? Private company."

 

[tammy8]

I think what MB was asking (and I also have wondered) is WHY was the claim denied in the first place? It is not the practice of an insurance to just NOT pay a claim, unless there is no coverage.

So OP, why exactly did your insurance NOT pay your claim?

 

[moburkes]

I WAS wondering, but changed my mind, when OP decided that my questions weren't valid.