NU Online News Service, Feb. 8, 3:07 p.m. EST

Negotiations between Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and plaintiffs' attorneys over more than $100 million are off to a bad start.

According to Richard Robertson, chief executive officer of Citizens, the state-run insurer and plaintiffs' attorneys continue to meet today in an attempt to resolve years of litigation with policyholders who say the last-resort insurer failed to start the claims-adjusting process within the time frame set by law following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Yesterday, Citizens presented an $80 million offer to settle the case. Attorneys representing the class of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Citizens countered with an offer of $123 million to be paid in three installments.

Robertson says Citizens' offer “comes with conditions and there has been no formal acceptance or rejection.”

However, attorneys for the plaintiffs say Citizens made its offer to the public after their meeting. The offer has not been made to policyholders. In fact, Citizens only offered $35 million during the meeting yesterday, they say.

The offers are being made to settle an ongoing legal battle against Citizens. Most recently, the state Supreme Court reinstated what is now a judgment of more than $100 million against Citizens, paving the way for about 18,575 Citizens policyholders to collect $5,000 each. However, the amount of people eligible to join the class could rise. Attorneys say the reward could be closer to about $145 million.

According to plaintiffs' attorneys, their settlement offer should not have been publicized by Citizens and Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon.

Fred Herman, class counsel, says the actions of Citizens and Donelon are “highly unprofessional.”

Donelon has “made a public spectacle of the so-called 'offer' of $80 million, but he and the Citizens board fail to understand that we have a judgment for $104 million plus $10,000 per day in interest until the funds are paid,” says Wiley Beevers, who serves as class counsel.

Sharing the negotiations with the public is a “stalling tactic” to delay payments to policyholders, Beevers says.

“We cannot do business with them like this,” he adds. “If Donelon wants to negotiate this way, he should just rent an event hall and invite the public in for the negotiation.”

Beevers says the class is engaged in a battle with Citizens' bank to unfreeze the insurer's account. The class wants its money turned over to authorities for safe-keeping, he says. Another lawsuit could be filed against the bank, Beevers adds.

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Talks to Settle Louisiana Citizens Class-Action Begin Badly

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