Acts of God and Other Silly Notions of Trees

May 3, 2022

Adjusting Insurance Claims Acts of God: If you are in the business of adjusting insurance claims, you have no doubt heard this scenario numerous times: “There was this incredible wind out of nowhere, and the next thing I knew my huge tree fell through my roof.” Another often repeated theme goes like this: “It must’ve […]

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Do Dead Trees Talk?

April 19, 2022

Do dead trees talk? Yes. 11:30 p.m. Had you been there on the wooded hill illuminated by the full moon, you would have definitely heard the noise. But you probably would never, ever have imagined its source. Something like a muffled groan but intuitively not human. Time would pass and you would have filed the […]

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Insurance Think Tanks and Mr. Big: Reduction of Risk

February 8, 2020

Somewhere on the penthouse floor of a gigantic insurance Think Tank sat Mr. Big. He had a grand idea. If the insurance risk of failing trees or tree parts could be eliminated, so would the wrongful death and personal injury cases his company and other insurance companies were paying out in claims. Trees falling onto […]

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Who’s Cheating Their Insurance Company?

November 25, 2019

Who’s cheating their insurance company? There are abuses on both sides of the insurance cheating issue. There are high-profile attorneys with great expertise in detecting fraud. These attorneys regularly post on LinkedIn verdicts that they received from a jury, verdicts that far exceeded the original claim in many instances. There are insurance companies whose attorneys […]

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The Cart Before the Horse

January 3, 2019

This insurance claim came from an insured in a metropolitan city. A construction company installing a new sidewalk accidentally (is it ever any other way?) hit the limb of a 17-inch-diameter tree growing in the cutout of the sidewalk. The limb tore and broke off. The guardian angel for trees in the city inspected the damage […]

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Creeping Normalcy

December 11, 2018

This matter came to me as an insured was named a defendant in a multi-million dollar personal injury claim. The matter regarded a landscape installer who allegedly failed to properly secure a newly installed tree in a new landscape. The tree failed during a significant weather event at a theme park. The theme park was […]

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Ten Commandments (Recommendations) of Settling Tree Claims

November 26, 2018

Across my desk came the assignment for the insured claim of irreparably damaging a protected tree during construction. It seems as though the construction personnel, shall we say, drifted across the tree barricades and smacked a protected tree but good. The government arborist cited code violations and a six-figure number for mitigation. There were pictures. […]

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CAMs – Beware Mount Mulch-More

October 23, 2018

If you are a Community Association Manager (CAM) or someone charged with the responsibility of managing landscapes, you have a rough and rugged road upon which to travel. And tradition informs us that many have lost their way; few have become independently wealthy and most dread the subject of landscape maintenance. This is especially true […]

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A FAREWELL TO MAGGIE: FAT CATS AND BUSBOY BUCKETS

October 1, 2018

  When the phone rings after midnight, it is typically bad news. This phone call was no exception.  I was driving with a million other people along an interstate trying to beat hurricane Florence to the punch and return home prior to her landfall. Had I heard that Maggie died?   My senses were immediately […]

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