The First District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday, December 29th, 2010, that banning public insurance adjusters from soliciting people 48 hours after an event that could lead to an insurance claim, such as a hurricane, violates adjusters’ commercial free speech rights. A public insurance adjuster had sued the state’s Department of Financial Services over the ban, created by the Legislature after the active 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. Public adjusters have been vilified by some insurers as being responsible for unnecessary or inflated insurance claims and the reason for claims being made or reopened years after an event. The Tallahassee court ruled that the Department of Financial Services couldn’t prove that keeping property owners from being contacted by public adjusters for 48 hours “is justified by the possibility that some public adjusters may unduly pressure traumatized victims or otherwise engage in unethical or unprofessional behavior.”
Read the Full Court Ruling: CLICK HERE
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/30/1993419/court-overturns-adjuster-ban.html#ixzz19csD4VTQ
