Several insurers have finalized settlements with claimants over disputed homeowner losses stemming from Hurricane Katrina, including Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, according to the Scruggs Katrina Group.
The law group, which is headed by Richard Scruggs, has doggedly pursued and represented claimants in Mississippi and Louisiana who feel they were not properly compensated by their insurance companies following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Most often, these cases involved a wind vs. water dispute in which insurers said damages deemed caused by flooding and storm surge would not be covered.
Sen. Lott became the national face for the issue when he became involved in a coverage dispute with State Farm after his Pascagoula, Miss., home was torn off its foundation by the storm, leaving just the slab it was built upon. He publicly decried the handling of claims by the insurance industry and has called for several reforms, including clearer policy language and more industry accountability. The terms of his claim settlement were not disclosed.
In addition to Lott, State Farm agreed to settle more than 640 individual claims as part of a settlement reached back in January. Last month, the Scruggs Katrina Group also announced that it resolved 227 contested claims that were filed after Katrina with Nationwide Insurance. In a similar move to State Farm, Nationwide also agreed to re-evaluate its Hurricane Katrina "slab" claims, which likely will add millions of dollars in payments to the $270 million the company has already paid out. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance Company (MetLife) also came to terms with 34 policyholders represented by Scruggs.
Scruggs-related litigation suits are still pending against several other insurers, including 280 against Allstate Insurance, 40 against United Services Automobile Association, and more than 50 against Mississippi Farm Bureau Insurance.
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