Insurance carriers should always be prepared by retaining experts who are not just experienced in publicly presenting themselves and their testimony about the particular claim, but who also understand what is involved in investigating claims of the kind involved in the particular case.
Further, it has been held that the parties, particularly the insurance companies who retain these experts, should be prepared to provide appropriate discovery concerning them, as well as being prepared to provide discovery concerning their investigations and evaluations in the case. For example, it has been held that insurance companies handling catastrophe claims after Sandy were required to provide the following requested production:
any drafts, redlines, markups, reports, notes, measurements, photographs and written communications related thereto—prepared, collected or taken by any engineer, adjustor or other agent or contractor affiliated with any defendant, relating to the properties and damage at issue in each and every case, whether such documents are in the possession of defendant or any third party.[1]
[1] In re Hurricane Sandy Cases, No. 14 MC 41, 2014 WL 7011069, *1 (E.D.N.Y. December 11, 2014). [Emphasis in original.] This was an order issued by a Committee of three United States Magistrate Judges managing “more than 1,000 Hurricane Sandy cases”. The Committee of Magistrates approved the previous ruling of Magistrate Brown in one of the cases that the defendant insurance company would be required to respond to the quoted production request, and affirmed that this discovery ruling applies to all of the Hurricane Sandy cases.