Seen in the Commercial Appeal:
An eight-person jury was picked Monday for the trial of one of hundreds of insurance lawsuits filed by policyholders after Hurricane Katrina, and a judge refused to move the proceedings hundreds of miles from Mississippi’s Gulf Coast to Oxford.[...]
At the same time, State Farm is negotiating a multimillion-dollar settlement in Mississippi on thousands of lawsuits and other disputed policyholder claims from Hurricane Katrina, people with direct knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press Monday.
State Farm lawyers met with Mississippi Atty. Gen. Jim Hood as recently as Friday to discuss a possible settlement, which would resolve a civil lawsuit Hood filed against the company for refusing to cover damage from Katrina’s storm surge almost 16 months ago.
One way or another, it would be good to finally get some resolution. However, I’m still concerned that the industry could be found to be on the hook for flood damage that was never considered in the underwriting or pricing of coverage.