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.

Strafford CLE Tomorrow On Self-Insured Retentions And Deductibles

It’s not too late to sign up for tomorrow’s CLE webinar sponsored by Strafford. I will be presenting along with Chris Ferragamo at Jackson & Campbell and Verne Pedro at Goldberg Segalla. The program runs from 1:00pm-2:30pm EDT. For complete details on the program, click the following link: http://www.straffordpub.com/products/tlwivm1nza?trk=ZDFCT Readers of Insurance Law Florida get a 50% …

Late Notice Dooms Policyholder (Or, Do Not Be Like Archie Bunker)

Back when New York was the last of the no-prejudice notice jurisdictions, we policyholder lawyers had a saying that giving notice in New York was like voting in Chicago: do it early and often. Fortunately for policyholders in New York, the legislature amended Section 3420 in 2009 to add a requirement that insurers prove they …

Another Reason to Avoid Citizens: Home Venue Privilege

I have written before about my views on efforts to depopulate Citizens (see here). There is no question that Florida needs to strengthen its private insurance market and reduce the number of policies written by Citizens, which remains the largest insurer by far in the State. Florida’s legislature has tried a lot of different ways …

Trigger Revisited: The Return Of Injury-in-Fact Trigger In Florida

The insurance concept of “trigger” is a bit esoteric, so let’s start with a little background. Trigger is one of the most important concepts in insurance law. It is also one of the most misunderstood. It is often mistaken for allocation, but the two concepts are different. Trigger determines which years of coverage apply to …

Deni Strikes Again: Total Pollution Exclusion Eliminates Coverage For Chinese Drywall Claims

The Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Deni Associates of Florida, Inc. v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance Co., 711 So.2d 1135 (Fla. 1998) continues to haunt Florida policyholders with Total Pollution Exclusions in their general liability policies. This time it was Southern District of Florida Judge Robert Scola’s July 16, 2012 decision in First …

Allocation Between Covered And Uncovered Damages

Coverage disputes frequently arise when claims contain some elements of damage that are covered and some that are not. The general rule in the duty-to-defend context is clear: where some allegations against a policyholder are potentially covered by the policy, the insurer must defend the entire action. This is often called the “in for a …

Florida Supreme Court Rules First-Party Bad-Faith Insurance Claims Must Be Brought Under Section 624.155

Today marks the official start of hurricane season, and what more appropriate way to kick off the season than with a new decision from the Florida Supreme Court involving damage to a Boca Raton condo building from Hurricane Wilma, the last major hurricane to hit Florida. Yesterday’s decision in QBE Insurance Corp. v. Chalfonte Condominium …

Duty to Defend Owed In Chinese Drywall Case

This April 9, 2012 decision (Great American Fidelity Insurance Co. and Great American E&S Insurance Co. v. JWR Construction Services Inc. and Gulf Reflections Condominium Association, No. 10-61423 (S.D. Fla. April 9, 2012)) by Judge Huck of the Southern District of Florida (Fort Lauderdale) is interesting for several reasons. The declaratory judgment action was filed …

Myth #4: Deductibles And Self-Insured Retentions Are The Same Thing

Lawyers and business people often use the terms self-insured retention (“SIR”) and deductible interchangeably, but there are important differences. When a policy has a deductible, the insurer is obligated to defend and indemnify on a first-dollar basis. The amount of the deductible is then reimbursed by the policyholder at the end of the claim. In contrast, …

It’s All About Trigger: Eleventh Circuit Re-Examines Insurance Coverage For Defective Work Under J.S.U.B. & Pozzi Window

The Eleventh Circuit recently issued a lengthy opinion in Amerisure Mut. Ins. Co. v. Auchter Co., No. 10-10960 (11th Cir. Mar. 15, 2012) (“Auchter”), in which it dove back into insurance coverage issues involving construction defects. Unlike the Florida Supreme Court decisions in United States Fire Ins. Co. v. J.S.U.B., Inc., 979 So. 2d 871 (Fla. 2007) (“J.S.U.B.”), …