{"id":68993,"date":"2020-12-08T11:52:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T16:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=68993"},"modified":"2020-12-08T11:52:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T16:52:54","slug":"shady-insurance-lawyer-ripped-off-fla-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=68993","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shady\u2019 Insurance Lawyer Ripped Off Fla. Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Those door-to-door people offering free roofs and more, billable to your insurer? Owners who sign their iPads might be hiring a lawyer rather than a contractor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2013 It can happen to anyone: Someone knocks on your door and says they\u2019re a repairman or an insurance expert and can fix damage to your home at no cost to you. They might say they can get you a new roof. Or a new kitchen.<\/p>\n

Your insurance company will get the bill, they\u2019ll say, and you won\u2019t be out a penny.<\/p>\n

Watch out. You\u2019re about to be sucked into a thriving insurance scam that\u2019s enriching a handful of law firms, threatening the financial stability of Florida\u2019s home insurance industry and driving up annual premiums for millions of homeowners who have never filed a claim.<\/p>\n

A newly filed complaint against one of the state\u2019s most notorious insurance attorneys lays out the alleged scheme.<\/p>\n

After you agree to accept their help, your visitor will hand you their tablet or cellphone and ask for your signature, saying it\u2019s needed to hire their company. You\u2019ll sign it without scrolling up.<\/p>\n

But rather than hiring a repair firm or public insurance adjuster, you\u2019ve actually hired a lawyer. And though you might never be told about it, you are about to become the plaintiff in a lawsuit against your insurance company.<\/p>\n

Why should you worry? The lawsuit, and your claim, will be recorded in an insurance database that follows you like a credit report. Your insurer might cancel you for being a bad risk. Your next insurance policy, if you can find one, will likely cost a lot more money.<\/p>\n

This is the scheme that home insurance companies say is largely to blame for annual premiums increasing as much as 30% to 40% right now for homeowners across the state. It\u2019s been run for years by a small number of crooked law firms, about 25 statewide, working with crooked repair contractors and crooked \u201closs consultants\u201d operating illegally as public insurance adjusters, insurers say.<\/p>\n

Scot Strems, a Coral Gables-based insurance attorney, built an empire this way, according to a recent complaint filed with the Florida Supreme Court by the Florida Bar Association, the licensing authority for lawyers who operate in the state. Overseeing 20 attorneys in six offices across the state, Strems targeted thousands of homeowners he and his cohorts knew wouldn\u2019t ask too many questions, \u201cincluding the elderly, immigrants, and people of humble means and education,\u201d the complaint says.<\/p>\n

They chose targets they thought \u201cwere unlikely to recognize the impropriety of the scheme\u201d and more likely to remain \u201cblindfolded\u201d to their unethical conduct, the suit states.<\/p>\n

State records show that Strems filed 8,756 lawsuits against property insurers between May 2014 and June 2020, when the Supreme Court suspended him indefinitely in response to a separate ethics complaint. Of those suits, at least 1,620 were filed in Broward County, 500 in Palm Beach County and 2,700 in Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n

Strems routinely used people who weren\u2019t employees of his law firm to hunt down new business, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

The Florida Bar declined to comment on the case beyond the specific allegations filed with the Supreme Court. Strems\u2019 attorney, Mark A. Kamilar, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In response to a separate suit filed by the Florida Bar against Strems in June that resulted in his indefinite suspension from practicing law, Kamilar said that Strems strongly disputed the allegations and looked forward to presenting his defense before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\u2018A warning to all the shady players\u2019<\/h3>\n

Amy Rosen, chief marketing officer for Deerfield Beach-based People\u2019s Trust Insurance Co., said the insurance industry hopes that the cases against Strems \u201cserve as a warning to all the shady players that they will get caught and we will not let them get away with their deceptive and illegal behavior anymore.\u201d She added, \u201cOver time, we hope this helps to bring premiums back down to the rates commensurate with the actual cost of doing business without any fraud involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legitimate public adjusters \u2013 who by law are licensed to knock on doors and offer to help homeowners file claims and negotiate settlements \u2013 are seeing their reputations tainted by illegal solicitors who claim to be public adjusters, said Timothy Cornett, president of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters. The organization has submitted hundreds of examples to the state Department of Financial Services, which so far has refused to investigate them, association officials say.<\/p>\n

The Florida Bar\u2019s most recent complaint against Strems lays out accounts of homeowners who said they found themselves caught in Strems\u2019 web after talking with people who promised to work with their insurance companies to get their homes repaired. Several said they had no idea they had signed a contract hiring Strems Law Firm to represent them. Others insisted they signed nothing and said that someone else signed their names on Strems\u2019 paperwork.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Manuel Pena of Kissimmee said he spoke after Hurricane Irma with a worker from the firm Contender Claims Consultants Inc. After inspecting Pena\u2019s home, the employee presented Pena with a piece of paper that Pena thought was a repair estimate. Pena signed it, not knowing it was the signature page for a Strems Law Firm retainer agreement, he said. Later, he received a signed and executed fee agreement, even though he did not want to be represented by an attorney.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
    • Iris Reves, a 75-year-old homeowner in Miami, answered her door to two Contender employees who said they were combing her neighborhood for \u201chomeowners with damages in order to represent them before their insurance companies.\u201d Even though she declined their services and refused to sign their tablet, a few days later she received a Strems fee agreement that she \u201cadamantly denies\u201d having signed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      • Martha Vasquez, an Osceola County homeowner, said she thought she was hiring a public adjuster when an employee of Let Us Claim Consultants Insurance Inc. handed her some papers to sign. But the company wasn\u2019t a public adjusting firm, and by signing the employee\u2019s documents, she was actually hiring Strems. \u201cAt no time did he ever tell me I was going to be represented by a law firm,\u201d the Bar complaint quoted her as saying. Let Us Claim Consultants eventually sent repair workers to her home who left behind holes in ceilings and kitchen baseboards and tore up Vasquez\u2019s dishwasher, she said.Officials of Contender Claims Consultants and Let Us Claim did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the complaint.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        The charges against Strems<\/h3>\n

        The Florida Bar\u2019s complaint accuses Strems of violating several ethics rules, including a ban on direct solicitation of clients by attorneys or anyone acting on their behalf. Other alleged violations include failure to obtain clients\u2019 consent before taking actions on their behalf, and failure to consult personally with clients and abide by clients\u2019 decisions about what the client wants the attorney to accomplish.<\/p>\n

        Strems also violated rules requiring lawyers to be truthful, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

        Strems is actually facing four separate Florida Bar complaints to the Supreme Court, which can impose an array of punishments up to and including disbarment. An attorney at his firm is facing a separate complaint by the Florida Bar. One of the complaints accuses Strems\u2019 firm of hiding from clients the amount of money it negotiated in their cases and keeping for itself far more than the standard 25% it disclosed to clients.<\/p>\n

        One of Strems\u2019 attorneys told an 85-year-old client and her son that their insurer offered $30,000, of which $7,500 would go to the firm, the complaint says. But the firm did not disclose reaching a separate settlement for $45,000 and keeping the additional $15,000, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

        Similar allegations are outlined in a sprawling lawsuit against Strems filed in June by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. accusing Strems and his associates of running a racketeering operation in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.<\/p>\n

        How you can help stop the fraud<\/h3>\n

        Illegal solicitation of insurance claims is exploding throughout Florida and driving up insurance costs for everyone, says Paul Handerhan, president of the Federal Association for Insurance Reform, a consumer-focused watchdog group based in Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n

        \u201cIt\u2019s pretty rampant, the amount of unlicensed solicitation going on, where these third parties are going around and driving business to these attorneys, which is illegal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

        Consumers need to be careful when responding to insurance claim solicitors, said Locke Burt, founder and CEO of Ormond Beach-based Security First Insurance.<\/p>\n

        \u201cWhat the lawyers don\u2019t tell them is if they don\u2019t get the insurance company to pay, then the homeowner is on the hook for their legal fees,\u201d Burt said. \u201cIt\u2019s in the fine print. They can put a lien against their house that [the insured] won\u2019t find out about until they go to sell their house.\u201d<\/p>\n

        In addition, any homeowner who files more than three claims within three years becomes uninsurable by state-regulated insurers and even Citizens, the state-run insurer of last resort, Handerhan said. That leaves homeowners vulnerable to \u201cforce-placed\u201d insurance by their mortgage holder, which is typically high-cost coverage from unregulated out-of-state carriers.<\/p>\n

        Predatory attorneys will often turn a single claim into three or four \u2013 say, one for damage in each room of the house \u2013 so they can file multiple lawsuits to collect multiple legal fees, he said.<\/p>\n

        When homeowners get a knock on their door, \u201cthe first thing you should do is get their card and ask who they are,\u201d Burt said. \u201cIf they are not a public adjuster, they\u2019re committing a felony.\u201d<\/p>\n

        He added: \u201cIf they ask you to sign a fee retainer (to hire an attorney), they\u2019re committing a misdemeanor. If he says, \u2018I\u2019ll take care of everything and he\u2019s not a public adjuster, that\u2019s a problem. If he says, \u2018I\u2019ll get it for you for free,\u2019 that\u2019s a crime. Because no one gets something for nothing. Everyone pays a deductible. Don\u2019t sign something you haven\u2019t read. If you do sign something, get a copy of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

        He advises consumers: \u201cIf you see something, say something. Tell your insurance agent. Tell your insurance company. Tell law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

        By Ron Hurtibise<\/p>\n

        \n

        \u00a9 2020 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Those door-to-door people offering free roofs and more, billable to your insurer? Owners who sign their iPads might be hiring a lawyer rather than a contractor. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2013 It can happen to anyone: Someone knocks on your door and says they\u2019re a repairman or an insurance expert and can fix damage to your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68993"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68995,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68993\/revisions\/68995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}