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Speaker 1: Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief,

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Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news and Today, Bloomberg Law

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Speaker 1: host Joam Grosso discusses Texas House Bill seventeen seventy four,

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Speaker 1: which went into effect last week and makes it more

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Speaker 1: difficult to sue insurers for mistreating policy holders. However, the

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Speaker 1: bill does not apply to the federal flood Insurance program

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Speaker 1: and it is unlikely to impact many victims of Hurricane Harvey.

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Speaker 1: She speaks with Stephen Pete, a member at Cozon O'Connor,

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Speaker 1: and Brian Lawton, a partner at Dean's and Lions. Steve,

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Speaker 1: let's go to this Texas law that there has been

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Speaker 1: a lot of confusion about tell us about that law

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Speaker 1: and what it does. Well, you know what, there were

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Speaker 1: so many there's so much smithsinformation about that that it

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Speaker 1: hits snops dot com. Snows dot com correctly pointed out

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Speaker 1: it doesn't prevent you from filing a claim, and in fact,

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Speaker 1: what it does is it corrects some abuses in the system.

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Speaker 1: It was designed to down on some what I call

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Speaker 1: storm chasing lawyers, some public adjusters who were abusing the system.

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Speaker 1: What you had to do by September one was file

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Speaker 1: a claim to take advantage of getting a higher interest rate.

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Speaker 1: If you filed a lawsuit later on and you're recovered

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Speaker 1: in that lawsuit, it has nothing to do with filing

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Speaker 1: a claim and recovering Brian. In the instance your insurance company,

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Speaker 1: you don't have flood insurance, and your insurance company may

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Speaker 1: say we're not covering this, and you may have to

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Speaker 1: hire a lawyer. Does this law affect you at that point, Well,

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Speaker 1: let me, first of all respectfully disagree with Steve because

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Speaker 1: I have a completely different opinional nous. This does not

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Speaker 1: regulate frivolous claims. This applies to valid claims. Penalties only

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Speaker 1: kick in when the insurance company is liable. So if

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Speaker 1: my insurance company knows that if it underpays me, it's

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Speaker 1: penalty is cut in half, I'm gonna have to hire

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Speaker 1: a lawyer to put them on notice. Oh and by

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Speaker 1: the way, if I do find a lawyer and I prevail,

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Speaker 1: there's an eight twenty sliding scale on attorney's fees, so

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Speaker 1: the penalty is cut in half. I can't get the

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Speaker 1: full measure of my attorney's fees. I have to put

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Speaker 1: the carrier on notice. And wait sixty days for them

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Speaker 1: to do something if you have to jump through all

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Speaker 1: of those hoops that are incentivized in the claim process

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Speaker 1: not to pay the full value of the claim. So, yes,

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Speaker 1: there is misinformation, and albeit it is correct, and it

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Speaker 1: only applies to lawsuits. But how the lawsuits develop, they

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Speaker 1: develop when the carrier doesn't do the right thing. And

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Speaker 1: this law only applies to valid claims. A frillless claim

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Speaker 1: is not covered by this act. As Brian Lawton, a

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Speaker 1: partner at Deans and Lions and Stephen Page remember at

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Speaker 1: Cozon O'Connor speaking with the Bloomberg Law host during cross

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Speaker 1: So you can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays at one

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Speaker 1: pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio. That's this

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Speaker 1: morning's Bloomberg Law Brief. You can find more legal news

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Speaker 1: at Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg b Anda dot com.

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Speaker 1: Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and business development tools

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Speaker 1: there as well. Visit Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: b Anda dot com for more information