EXCLUSIVE REPORTS
From the September 2, 2005 print edition

Local lawyer drafting flood of '04 hurricane suits

Brian Bandel - Business Journal Staff Writer

ORLANDO -- Many Floridians still struggling to rebuild from 2004's hurricane
season plan to take insurers to court in a storm of lawsuits ready for filing. Attorney Alan Garfinkel of Orlando plans to file 100 to 150 lawsuits against insurance companies by the end of September. His law firm represents 2,800 Florida clients disputing insurance payouts from the 2004 hurricanes.

Most of them came to Garfinkel for independent damage estimates in this year's second quarter. While most cases have been settled or mediated, the first wave of cases at an impasse is headed to court.

"We've exhausted every non-litigation technique that the policy requires and normal insurance processing claims require," Garfinkel says. "The insurance companies now have to be beat on the head to attempt to do the right thing."

Juan Petrizzo, a resident of Plantation in Broward County, plans to file suit against Colony Insurance Co., of Richmond, Va., over damage to his two rental communities in Palm Beach County. The hurricanes last summer caused roof damage, leaks and broken lights, windows, fences and screens at the 116-unit Town and Country Villas in Greenacres and the 150-unit Villas of Brandy Chase in Lake Worth.

After Colony assessed the damage to both properties at $320,000, Petrizzo hired Garfinkel on contingency, and the attorney's team of adjusters assessed $2.3 million in damage. Petrizzo was unable to afford repairs with the claim his insurer paid and didn't have enough money to fix the property himself, he says. "I couldn't afford the property anymore," he says. "I sold the property below the market price. I lost $6 million because of the sale." Colony's attorney, Marc Gutterman of Hollywood, says the matter with Petrizzo is still being investigated, but the property owner hasn't fully complied with his post-loss duties under the insurance contract.

A year after being struck by two hurricanes, blue tarps are still a common sight in the Palm Beaches and the Treasure Coast. Debbie Schults prepared for Hurricane Katrina while in a FEMA trailer in front of her still-damaged Lake Park home in northern Palm Beach County. In 2004, Hurricane Frances struck her duplex, blowing a hole in the roof,
letting in water which ruined her furniture and carpet and caused mold in the walls.

She's on her fourth State Farm adjuster and the insurer finished paying her
$27,000. That was enough to repair her roof and do mold remediation, but
Schults has no ceiling, no kitchen and is missing 80 percent of her walls.

According to Garfinkel's adjusters, she needs an additional $35,000 to finish repairs. Because of the extent of the damage, she can't sell the house or take out a second mortgage. "I've paid the premium on this house for 10 years on time, and yet here I
am, a year later, trying to squeeze some money out of them," she says. "At this point, I'm so fed up that I'm willing to go the court."

State Farm Florida spokesman Tom Hagerty says his company will always work with customers who don't think their claim settlement is adequate. Garfinkel contends that insurance companies systematically undervalue claims on property damage to limit their payouts. That's completely false, says Sam Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council. Of the nearly 1.7 million claims stemming from 2004's Florida hurricanes, 50,000 were in court and 10,000 went to mediation, constituting a small percentage of the overall claims, Miller says. Insurers paid out a combined $52 billion for the four hurricanes, he says.

Brian Bandell is a staff writer for the South Florida Business Journal, a
sister publication of OBJ.