Author archives

Before starting his own firm in 2011, Robert Friedman served as head of the Insurance Coverage Practice at Gunster in West Palm Beach, where he founded the firm’s insurance practice in 2006. Before joining Gunster, Friedman worked for seven years in the Insurance Coverage group of Dickstein Shapiro LLP in New York. Prior to that, he served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Friedman graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1998 and at the top of his class at Cornell University in 1995. He is a member of the bar in Florida and New York. He is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Florida, Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of New York, and Eastern District of New York, as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Friedman has written extensively about insurance coverage and other legal issues for national and regional publications, including National Underwriter, Business Insurance, Risk & Insurance, Daily Business Review, South Florida Business Journal, and the Harvard Law Record. He has been quoted as an expert on insurance law issues in numerous national and local publications. He has presented seminars on commercial insurance topics to business and legal groups, including the Practicing Law Institute. He also has advised the State of Florida on insurance policy issues. Mr. Friedman has served on the board of directors of the alumni association of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell, as well as the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County. He currently serves on the board of the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County.

Join Us For A CLE Webinar On Discovery And Work Product Issues In Insurance Disputes: Jan. 22, 2014 @ 1pm

I will be presenting along with Lou Chiafullo at McCarter & English and Eric Portuguese at Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer at a webinar sponsored by Strafford Publications. The program runs from 1:00pm-2:30pm EDT. For complete details on the program, or to register, click here: http://www.straffordpub.com/products/insurance-litigation-and-work-product-obtaining-or-protecting-documents-in-coverage-and-bad-faith-claims-2014-01-22?print=true I hope you will join us.

Hurricane “Predictors” No Longer of Use to Insurance Industry

The recent news that Colorado State University plans to shut down Professor Emeritus William Gray’s hurricane predicting center should not come as a surprise. The center has for many years been funded by the insurance industry and served its purpose of whipping the press into a frenzy so that the insurance industry could rake in billions of …

In “Other Insurance” News: “Escape Clause” Beats “Excess Clause”

I know “other insurance” issues can be esoteric, but they are also increasingly important to insurance disputes. They are so important that I did a CLE presentation recently that focused almost exclusively on the impact of the “other insurance” clause on deductibles and self-insured retentions (program materials can be found here). The “other insurance” clause …

Another One Bites the Dust: Florida Appellate Court Reaffirms Favorable Occurrence Test

Number of occurrences is a critical issue in many insurance coverage disputes. In the World Trade Center coverage cases, it was a billion dollar issue. The dispute arises in everything from product liability coverage cases, to environmental coverage cases, to automobile and dog bite cases. Number of occurrences cuts both ways in coverage litigation. In …

Myth # 6: Your Insurance Company Selects Your Defense Counsel

It has been a fairly quiet summer for insurance coverage decisions in Florida, and it has been a while since I added an installment to my series on Commercial Insurance Myths & Misconceptions. So let’s talk about selection of defense counsel. When appointing counsel to defend a newly-filed lawsuit, insurers typically announce to their policyholder …

Florida Supreme Court to 11th Circuit on Policy Ambiguities: “We Meant What We Said and Said What We Meant”

Last March I wrote about the 11th Circuit’s decision in Ruderman v. Washington National Insurance Corp., No. 10-14714 (11th Cir. Feb. 17, 2012) (appeal of docket No. 1:08-cv-234011-JIC), in which the court certified to the Florida Supreme Court the question of whether an ambiguous insurance policy provision is automatically construed against an insurer or whether the insurer can …

Florida Supreme Court Endorses Enhanced Fee Shifting For Contractual Indemnity Claims

It has been a quiet period for insurance coverage opinions in Florida. Today I want to discuss an important decision from the Florida Supreme Court that did not involve a coverage dispute but will have an impact on coverage and indemnity disputes going forward. The case is First Baptist Church of Cape Coral, Florida, Inc., …

Additional Insured Entitled to Independent Defense Counsel

In University of Miami v. Great American Assurance Company, No. 3D09-2010 (Fla. 3d. DCA Feb. 20, 2013), the Third DCA held that an insurance company had to pay for separate and independent defense counsel to defend its additional insured. The coverage dispute arose out of a tragic incident in which a four-year-old child suffered severe injuries …

Florida Supreme Court Upholds Tort Claims Against Insurance Brokers & Finally Kills the Economic Loss Rule

It took the Florida Supreme Court two years after oral argument to come to its senses and reaffirm the right of Florida policyholders to sue their insurance brokers for negligence. The Court’s decision in Tiara Condominium Association, Inc., etc. v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., et al., No. SC10-1022 (March 7, 2013) is groundbreaking in several …