Follow Up: Residents Owed Approximately $20,000 Per Household
Last October, we worked with St. Petersburg Times reporter Tom Zucco on this story on behalf of our client, the Merlin Law Group. It chronicled the hardships of 48 low-income families in Central Florida that were hit by Hurricane Charley, and then subsequently low balled by their insurer United Casualty, a division of Unitrin.
After the suits were filed, United made a successful bid to have the cases put into appraisal. A process whereby an independent source would determine how much, if anything, the insured were underpaid by. Perhaps it wasn’t the best decision on their part.
As reported, again by the St. Petersburg Times, the total underpaid amount for all residents was determined to be just under $1 Million at $944,056. Looking at the underpayment for each policyholder revealed an average underpayment of about $20,000 per household.
With a branded glass tower at 1 Wacker Drive in Chicago and over $3 billion in revenues (that’s billion with a B), that’s not even a quarter of the $6.5 million Unitrin CEO Richard C. Vie made, according to Forbes.
Merlin Law Group attorney David Pettinato and resident Betty Cooper were also asked to share their story and perspective on the situation on the Ft. Myers CBS affiliate.
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