Trolling for Tech Toys

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Mike Aylward

OK. I admit it--I didn't wait for Santa Claus this year.  I am now the ecstatic owner of a new IPad.  Having spent much of Thansgiving weekend playing Scrabble on line with a friend in Mississippi and listening to Bob Dylan on Pandora, I am also discovering the wealth of useful legal applications that this new technology presents for coverage practicioners.

A particularly cool new app is "Picture It Settled", a free program designed by a San Antonio lawyer that allows you to automatically track all the demands and offers in a settlement negotiation.  Anyone who has sat through a construction defect mediation can immediately grasp the value of this app.  It also has a particularly cool alogrithm that creates a predictive capability once you've entered the numbers from several past mediations, allowing you to more accurately guess the ultimate cost of settlement and the most likely response to settlement offers and demands.

 

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Sanctions Available For Insurer's Failure to Attend Court-Ordered Mediation

Posted on June 16, 2008 by Sara Thorpe

In Robert Campagnone v. Enjoyable Pools & Spa Service & Repairs, Inc. (2008) ___ Cal.App.4th ___ [08 C.D.O.S. 6579], the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, denied a motion for sanctions against an insurer for failing to attend a court-ordered mediation, and against a party and its attorneys for failing to notify the insurer of its obligation to attend.  However, the court announced that parties and their counsel will be sanctioned in future cases if they fail to put an insurer with “potential insurance coverage” on notice of the insurer’s obligation to send a representative with full settlement authority to court-ordered mediations. The court also warned insurers with “potential insurance coverage” that they can be sanctioned if they fail to send a representative to the mediation.

The court based its holding on the Third Appellate District’s local rules include Local Rule 1(d)(9) which provides that all parties and their counsel of record must attend all mediation sessions in person and with full settlement authority.  The rule also provides that, if a party has “potential insurance coverage applicable to any of the issues in dispute, a representative of each insurance carrier whose policy may apply also must attend all mediation sessions in person, with full settlement authority...”

The Court reasoned it has authority to impose such sanctions under the Appellate Rules of the California Rules of Court, Rule 8.276(a) and Local Rule 1(g). In addition, the Court explained that sanctions can be awarded against insurers because they are considered parties to a mediation.

Other Districts' and specific court's rules should be consulted to determine whether this ruling will have application outside of the Third Appellate District.

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