Oil Spill Adjusters Damage Surveyors

Lately we’ve had quite a few requests for information about Oil Spill Adjusters and oil-spill related damage surveyors.  We’ve even noticed that a few Underwriters at one particular Error and Omission Insurer have taken the time to briefly scout this extremely new and uncharted territory of insurance risk.

The Exxon Valdex oil spill that plagued Alaska in 1989 would be a great place to start in terms of developing some logic toward this discussion but from what we can tell most of the claims were handled internally by Exxon and in Civil Litigation.

Independent-Adjuster.com does not extend any support toward BP or TransOcean, or any other parties responsible for the Gulf of Mexico Deep Water Horizon Spill in handling their own claims or oil damage surveys.  Simply put, BP is in the business of profiting from various oil and energy related ventures.  These companies have an intelligent group of folks working to resolve these claims but one has to ask what their experience is in dealing with the unknown.  How can a company who is loosing millions by the day possibly have any interest in fair settlements of their claims?  Of course, we all know that fair settlements prevent legal woes and that the Plaintiffs bar is veracious for lawsuits right now but that doesn’t mean their claims team is experienced in dealing with the general public, or that their own legal counsel is going to make any rational decision, or that the boards of directors are going to approve anything they receive. Will these companies

BP and TransOcean also know that the people in general are going to have a difficult time obtaining Plaintiffs counsel with the right experience to defend against their own counsel in legal disputes.

BP and TransOceans interest, despite their wealth of advertisements about helping the community recover, is to raise their shareholder value.  If the company remotely cared about anything else then I would not be writing this article in the first place, especially considering the recent news of failed emergency alarms and other disgusting practices.  It should be noted that most corporations only interest is to survive and increase shareholder value.  We firmly believe that the interest of the responsible companies only interest now, if not at all the times previous to the Deep Water Horizon Spill is to increase shareholder value.

Based on the foregoing it is clear that an impartial or unbiased and fair settlements cannot be created in having the responsible parties handle their own losses. BP and the responsible parties should be inviting experienced claim professionals, including those with residential & mechanical experience, and a group of common working class from the area to form a committee for the betterment of handling these losses. If anything, the National Association of Independent Adjusters should be using their political leverage (or lack of) to force this issue into court.

We do know for a fact that a lot of working class fishermen and others took settlement offers related to the 89 Valdez spill.  What we fail to recognize is the financial disaster inflicted upon the people, business and economy of that region by accepting settlements far short of what was truly required to make up for so many lost years of fishing and other affected industries.

BP has a right to try and settle their own claims but the responsible parties for the loss know well and good that the Civil Courts are going to be inundated with suits.

There are so many points to be made in discussing the various issues and coverages surrounding Oil Claims that we are going to divide them up into the following categories:

  • Residential Property Claims (the potential for them combined with wind and oil in hurricane or greater gale force winds)
  • Commercial Business Losses from Oil Claims
  • Subrogation in Oil Claim related Losses
  • Potential for Litigation
  • General Oil Damage Survey Information

We are currently working on the above captioned articles and will post them throughout the next two weeks.  Thanks and stay tuned wed love to see your comments below!

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