Insurance Agent - Know Your Rights Under Florida Lemon Law

Plaintiffs allege that defendants, in this case, were negligent in hiring inadequate workers and in paying the agreed wages on time. They further claim that they suffered injuries, due to the defendants' negligence, as a result of the defendants failing to provide proper insurance coverage for their operations. The complaint further claims that defendant did not make good faith efforts to find more suitable workers to cover for the insufficient workers, did not make good faith efforts to provide the necessary protective gear or did not make good faith efforts to train the workers in safety. Plaintiffs further claim that the defendant failed to train its employees how to use the equipment properly and did not train its employees how to do their job safely.
Plaintiffs further claim that the defendants deliberately chose to ignore the problems at the rig and failed to notify them in advance of the operation, so that they would not have any knowledge of what was happening on site. On the day of the accident, defendant ignored the workers and instead of immediately calling the South Carolina Bureau of Labor and Industrial Relations to report the incident, which would have caused the insurer to increase the coverage for the workers under its preferred contractor's policy, it called them "visitors" and provided no contact information. The next day, defendant informed the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Relations that all of the injured workers had recovered and none of them were covered by the South Carolina Company liability insurance policy. The next day, another worker died while trying to retrieve dead fish from the rig. This worker was not one of the "visitors" that the company initially called and was actually an employee. He was injured and his family is owed compensation for his loss and that of his wife and child.
There is one common factor between this accident and the prior one in which a third-party insurer made an error in determining the level of risk for a company that insured the rig. Specifically, the insurance company failed to make a sufficient determination of the total daily operating cost of the rig and did not include one of the important elements for that determination, the risk retention groups. Insurance law 3420 requires that the insurance company must make a "good faith" estimate of the daily operating cost of the property, but it also requires that he provide a good faith estimate of the amount of coverage provided.
In the case of the first accident, the insurer, AIG, made a determination that this was a low probability occurrence, which was described as "a one-in-a-million chance." In light of this conclusion, AIG immediately underinsured the workers by offering an underwriter discount that resulted in the workers receiving very low premiums. Subsequently, the insurer did not include this information in its final evaluation and did not provide the workers with the opportunity to recover any benefits on their underlying personal injury action.

Because AIG failed to promptly disclose coverage to its insured employees, section 2601 (a) (5) required that it "prominently and conspicuously" disclose the nature, quantity and coverage of the policy to all employees. Subsequently, section 3420 (a) (2) required that the insurer "make available" to all employees, upon request, the complete application for such policy and the section 3712 (a) (3) instruction that it provide a copy of the application to the named insured.Pursuant to section 6 of the National Manufacturers Compensation Act, it is unlawful for an insurer to fail to timely disclose coverage for an eligible individual or to make application for such coverage. Therefore, it is imperative that your insurance broker is familiar with the National Manufacturers Compensation Act and its subdivision laws. If your broker does not know these laws or does not have reasonable knowledge that they apply to your situation, it is in your best interest to retain your agent and continue to discuss your case with him or her. You can learn more about your rights by visiting the NMLS website or talking to a qualified lra. If you are in need of legal assistance, you should contact an attorney immediately. Failure to obtain an appropriate lawyer can result in a substantial loss of damages or an award of benefits that are insufficient to compensate you for your losses.