Insurance Coverage Blog

"The ultimate authority on all things related to Hurricane Katrina-related litigation and the circus that surrounds the main plaintiffs attorneys involved."

Author: David Rossmiller, managing editor of the Insurance Coverage Blog, is a partner at Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue in Portland, Ore., who specializes in complex commercial litigation, particularly insurance recovery and insurance coverage litigation. Before becoming a lawyer, David was an award-winning investigative, crime and political newspaper reporter, including eight years with the Phoenix Gazette, the now-defunct afternoon daily in Phoenix. He is admitted to the bar in both Oregon and Washington.

Blawg Related Categories: Natural Disasters • Insurance Law • Partner

Recent Posts from Insurance Coverage Blog

Memorial Day 2009
I first ran the post below for Memorial Day in 2006 as a tribute to my Dad, who served as a soldier during World War II. This is the fourth straight year for this post, and I'll…
Blogging schedule
I'm speaking today and tomorrow at the PLRB conference in Seattle, so blogging will be limited for the next couple days. What am I talking about? Anti-concurrent cause, what else? If I can sneak in…
Rigsby update: forgotten but not gone
For those who remember the heady Katrina litigation days of the Ride of the Rigsbys -- appearing on ABC's 20/20, acclaimed as alleged whistleblowers -- these times are very different for the sisters. They've slipped in the…
Insurance Person of the Year
Nothing like giving the readers a lot of advance notice before an ultra-high stakes award like this is finalized, right? I'm a bit tardy on this, but hey, it's not like I'm on the advisory board of the…
Kodrin Katrina case: Fifth Circuit vacates punitive damage award against State Farm, upholds verdict of wind damage
Kodrin v. State Farm is one of the Katrina cases, which I wrote about previously here and here. It was different from many Katrina cases in that, at least as far as what was presented to…
Scruggs Nation: Zach is back . . . to the halfway house
The Scruggs Nation has a fever, and the only prescription is more Scruggs. Well, OK, this news story is not about Dickie Scruggs, it's about Zach Scruggs, not the same, I know, but it will…
'Partridge' family reunion: California v. Allstate
I saw this opinion, California v. Allstate, a couple days ago but other things interfered with blogging about it until now. This is a case about coverage for environmental pollution under the "sudden and unexpected" language…
Abracadabra: anti-concurrent cause and the search for 'illusory' insurance coverage
I was looking through my Bloglines feedreader last night under my folder labeled "anti-concurrent cause," and saw this really good post from the Slabbed blog. This is a fascinating discussion not only of Katrina damage, but of…
End days for False Claims Act case alleging massive insurer fraud?
You might recall that one of the central talking points by certain people during the heyday of Katrina litigation was this: insurance companies committed massive fraud on policyholders and federal taxpayers by overstating flood damage that would be paid, up to…
Scruggs Nation: Zach was 'halfway' home
You might have seen how Zach Scruggs, whom this AP story describes as "the son of the once legendary civil lawsuit attorney" Dickie Scruggs, was released from prison early to go to a halfway house to prepare…