You were in an auto accident. You have insurance. So you are covered…right? Well, maybe. Auto insurance policies contain multiple coverages. Each coverage serves a specific purpose. If your accident involves more than two vehicles, high damages or two vehicles insured by the same company, sorting out insurer roles can be tricky. This problem is…
It’s not fair!! When it comes to claims, what happened in an accident matters less than what is documented… Insurers are more accepting of injury claims which are well documented in medical chart notes. Why? Because real time documentation is strong evidence of what really happened and because insurers know folks are most truthful when…
You paid thousands in insurance premiums and have presented few, in any, claims until now. As a loyal customer you innocently believed that if someday you made a claim, it would be promptly and fairly resolved. Wrong! Instead of quick claim resolution, you were delayed, denied and treated like a petty criminal. Instead of prompt claim…
It happens in different ways. Jim should be alive. He waited for the crosswalk light and began walking across. About half way through a drunk driver ran him down, sped off and left him for dead. Sally just finished tuning her road bike. Excited to meet friends later on, Sally happily pedaled in a bike lane…
In Crawford v. Metropolitan Government, the U.S. Supreme Court in January, 2009 unanimously declared that federal law protects workers from retaliation, even when the worker did not personally complain about discrimination on the job. Ms. Crawford asserted she was fired after cooperating with a sexual harassment investigation. Writing for the majority, Justice David Souter favored a…
Dear Richard: My situation was so incredibly ridiculous that no one believed me until I brought my case to you, you stood up for me when no one else would, you were my voice when I didn’t have one, and you never backed down. You stood strong by my side while we fought the battle…
“Can an insurance company really do that?” is a question I am regularly asked. With some exceptions (such as employer provided disability plans) insurers are regulated by state, not federal law. In Oregon, our starting point for assessing an insurer’s practices is Oregon’s Unfair Claim Settlement Practices Act found at ORS 746.230. To help you…
I am a personal injury attorney and an insurance attorney practicing in the Portland metro area. But what does that really mean? As a personal injury attorney in Portland, I help people who are injured due to the fault of another obtain fair compensation for injuries. A key is fault. Injuries that are not the…
To say that by having Richard Rizk adjudicate an insurance claim was a serendipitous event is an understatement. My wife, a registered nurse, was seriously injured. Three attorneys, upon separate accounts over several years, failed to achieve monetary compensation. One attorney, who knows Richard from law school, recommended his firm. What three attorneys could not…
Thu November 13, 2008, 3:52 pm You have submitted a property loss claim or uninsured motorist claim [1] to your insurance company. So it can better understand the loss, your insurer asks to provide information and complete some forms describing your damage. You dutifully do so. Then, an overly legal letter arrives from your insurer. It requires…