Practice Areas

Serving the insurance industry’s needs is one of Kaplan Zeena’s primary strengths. For more than a quarter of a century, our attorneys have represented insurers in courtrooms and arbitral forums throughout the country in a wide variety of complex lawsuits and disputes.

Our firm has developed a highly respected practice representing domestic and international insurers in coverage and bad faith cases. We provide cogent, responsive and skilled analysis and opinions of claims and policies and likewise provide claim defense in litigation and appraisal as well as bad faith coverage and defense.

Our team represents insurers in high stakes and contentious litigation throughout the State of Florida. These cases typically involve substantial exposure and risk for our clients, sophisticated legal issues and complicated factual and expert discovery. We are routinely selected by our industry clients who have come to depend on our prudent and practical advice and, if needed, aggressive and effective litigation strategies.

On behalf of our industry clients, we address all aspects of first party and third party coverage analysis, coverage litigation and bad faith defense. Our experience extends to a wide variety of classes and types of primary, excess and umbrella policies and reinsurance from general liability to D&O to professional liability and EPLI. Some examples of the claims types and industries include:

• Bad Faith – Statutory and Common Law claims of insurer misconduct seeking extracontractual damages against our industry clients. We are particularly adept at quickly responding and managing the Civil Remedy Notice process under Florida’s Claims Administration Statute.
• Construction and Construction Products – Construction Defects; Wrap Coverages; Chinese Drywall; Mold.
• D&O – financial institutions; public companies; not-for profit; public officials; School Board legal liability and trustees and fiduciaries.
• EPLI and Discrimination – sexual harassment, racial discrimination; religious discrimination; housing discrimination (including FHA); and whistleblower claims.
• ERISA – counseling; disability litigation; fiduciary litigation; and stop-loss coverages.
• Life Insurance – Sales practice cases for both companies and controlled and independent agents in both individual and class action suits.
• Professional Liability – legal malpractice; medical malpractice (including vast experience with Florida’s pre-suit procedures and new and highly specialized bad faith rules); design professionals; insurance brokers; actuaries; real estate brokers; property appraisers; property managers and a wide and growing array of miscellaneous professionals.
• Property – property coverage; law and ordinance coverage; business interruption; appraisal; hurricanes; sinkhole claims; on both a primary and excess basis.
• Transportation – aviation; marine and cargo; tire manufacturers; local and over the road trucking.

We offer our industry clients a variety of value added services. These include:

• Continuing Education – Several of our partners are registered with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to provide continuing education to claims representatives and we have several programs that have been previously approved by the Florida Department for these purposes.
• Routine Inquiries – As a courtesy, we are pleased to address question of a limited scope that can be answered quickly from our knowledge bank. We stay current on changes in the law and new cases that affect our industry clients and frequently send short client advisories that are informative, focused and reader friendly.
• Local Presence – With mediation now required in every case in every State and Federal Court in the State of Florida, many of our clients (and in particular, our international clients) find it expensive and disruptive to provide the requisite in person representative at mediation. We are able to offer an efficient and cost-effective alternative, often on very short notice.

Florida’s treacherous legal environment demands experienced counsel who know both the law and the landscape. We encourage you to contact us to discuss how we may be able to assist you by deploying our effective and efficient legal strategies on your behalf.