Zalma on Insurance
Education • Business
Insurance Claims professional presents articles and videos on insurance, insurance Claims and insurance law for insurance Claims adjusters, insurance professionals and insurance lawyers who wish to improve their skills and knowledge. Presented by an internationally recognized expert and author.
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July 10, 2022
Excellence in Claims Handling at Locals.com

A Place to Learn Excellence in Claims Handling
Barry Zalma

Every Insurer is Obligated to Maintain a Professional Claims Staff

Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/ghYXHqur

Excellence in Claims Handling at Locals.co and see the video at https://lnkd.in/grN-3ubG and at https://lnkd.in/ggpuewAD; see the introductory video at https://lnkd.in/grwu3i_M and at https://lnkd.in/gr98_xC2, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4250 posts.

Posted on July 9, 2022 by Barry Zalma

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See the video at https://rumble.com/v1br3xb-xcellence-in-claims-handling-at-locals.com.html and at

Your support will ensure Zalma on Insurance & ClaimSchool, Inc. can continue to be produced with the quality you’ve come to expect, but also to grow, expand, and evolve as well. You’ll be supporting ideas and values you believe in, and directly supporting the Zalma on Insurance team, and the flexibility to navigate the future as the digital landscape changes.

Subscribe to the Excellence in Claims Handling program at zalmaoninurance.locals.com. and receive the videos limited to subscribers of Excellence in Claims Handling at locals.com by clicking on the following link https://zalmaoninsurance.locals.com/subscribe. Subscribe to become a supporter. Get access to all content and interact with Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE and the Zalma on Insurance Community.

See the introductory video at

and at https://rumble.com/vrhaka-excellence-in-claims-handling.html

There are presently six videos posted with hundreds to come.

Insurance is a business. It must change if it is to survive. It must rethink the firing of experienced claims staff and reductions in training to save “expense.”
The Excellence in Claims Handling Program

Excellence in claims handling is a program that can help insurers avoid charges of bad faith in both first and third party claims.

An insurer must understand that it cannot adequately fulfill the promises it makes to it insured and the Fair Claims Practices Act which exist in almost every state, when dealing with claimants without excellence in claims handling. An insurer must work intelligently and with vigor to create a professional claims department.
A Proposal to Create Claims Professionals

To avoid claims of bad faith; to avoid punitive damages; to avoid losses; and to make a profit insurers must maintain claim staffs who are dedicated to excellence in claims handling. That means they will make sure every promise made in every policy is satisfied by the:

Insurers who only hire insurance claims professionals.

Insurers who train the claims staff to be insurance claims professionals.

Insurers who require that the claims staff treat every insured with good faith and fair dealing.

Insurers who demand excellence in claims handling from the claims staff.

The insurance industry for the last 25 years has decimated the number of insurance claims professionals for insurers to hire.

If any experienced claims professionals exist in the insurer’s staff, the insurer must cherish and nurture them. If none are available, the insurer has no option but to train its people.

Those who treat all insureds and claimants with good faith and fair dealing and provide excellence in claims handling must be honored with increases in earnings and perquisites.

The insurer must immediately eliminate those who do not provide excellence in claims handling from the claims staff.

What Sources Are Available to Obtain Training?

The Excellence in Claims Handling program includes a series of web-based lectures supported by text materials like my claims books available at amazon.com and over the insurance claims library at my web site at https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/.

The web lectures should be supplemented by meetings between supervisors and claims staff on a regular basis to reinforce the information learned in the lectures.

The Excellence in Claims Handling Program is not enough. In addition, the insurer must institute a regular program of auditing claims files to establish compliance with the subjects studied. There is no quick and easy solution. The training takes time. Learning takes longer. The insurer’s management must support and reinforce the training regularly.
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By subscribing for only $5 a month or $50 a year you and your staff will receive the videos limited to subscribers of Excellence in Claims Handling at locals.com.

If you wish your claims staff to provide excellence in claims handling you, and your claims staff, can Subscribe to the Excellence in Claims Handling program at https://zalmaoninsurance.locals.com/subscribe.

(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 54 years in the insurance business. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

Subscribe and receive videos limited to subscribers of Excellence in Claims Handling at locals.com https://zalmaoninsurance.locals.com/subscribe.

Subscribe to Excellence in Claims Handling at https://barryzalma.substack.com/welcome.

Write to Mr. Zalma at [email protected]; http://www.zalma.com; http://zalma.com/blog; daily articles are published at https://zalma.substack.com.

Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma; Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/

00:06:42
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What else you may like…
Videos
Posts
September 18, 2026
Expert May Only Testify to What Experience Supports

Insurance Expert May Not Testify to Speculative and Contains Unsupported Conclusions.

Posted on September 18, 2026 by Barry Zalma

See the full video at and at https://rumble.com/v7fmifw-expert-may-only-testify-to-what-experience-supports.html

In Michele A. Over, and The Estate Of Paul R. Over v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and State Farm Fire And Casualty Company, Civil Action No. 23-cv-02243-PAB-STV, United States District Court, D. Colorado (September 14, 2026) Michele and Paul Over sued State Farm Fire and State Farm Auto over hail-damage and stolen-vehicle claims.

The operative dispute concerned State Farm Auto’s motion to exclude or limit opinions from plaintiffs’ insurance-industry expert, Aaron Castillo. Castillo.

Law

The proponent of expert testimony must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that an expert is qualified and that the opinions are helpful, sufficiently grounded, and reliably derived and applied. Experience-based opinions must explain how the...

00:03:10
September 17, 2026
Convicted on 29 Tax-Refund-Fraud Counts

150 Months in Prison for Tax Fraud
Post 4846

Posted on September 17, 2026 by Barry Zalma

See the full video at https://lnkd.in/g8rh3JBX and https://lnkd.in/gmkdy-9C, In United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, Nos. 25-10609, 25-10611, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (September 9, 2026) the Eleventh Circuit affirmed all challenged convictions, the 150-month aggregate sentence, and the challenged $4,123,474.55 restitution award.

FACTS

In United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, Nos. 25-10609, 25-10611, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (September 9, 2026) the Eleventh Circuit affirmed all challenged convictions, the 150-month aggregate sentence, and the challenged $4,123,474.55 restitution award.
FACTS

Thomas Addaquay controlled United Consolidated Accounting and Business Services (UC), nominally a check-cashing business.

The government proved a three-stage tax-refund scheme that converted the resulting refund checks into usable funds through ...

00:05:23
September 14, 2026
Court Enforces Fifth Amendment & Refuses to Compel Answers

Major Fraud Perpetrator Asserts Fifth Amendment Privilege to Avoid Prosecution

Post 5489

Posted on September 14, 2026 by Barry Zalma

Fraudster Refuses to Answer Questions About His Alleged Fraud

See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gvicAMDr and at https://lnkd.in/gvicAMDr

In Great American Insurance Co. v. Gemstone Property Management, LLC, et al., No. 23-cv-9100 (LJL), United States District Court, S.D. New York (September 8, 2026) Great American Insurance Company alleged that it was defrauded through a scheme in which Subin Associates, LLP recruited individuals to stage construction-site injuries, arranged unnecessary medical treatment and litigation funding, and pursued fraudulent personal-injury claims.

Luis Manuel Garcia Salcedo, resulted in a $6 million settlement. Non-party Jose Hernandez allegedly worked as an assistant manager at Subin, operated Hernandez Associates, and owned litigation-funding companies that shared office space with Subin and provided services to its clients.

After Great American ...

00:05:14
22 hours ago
Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter – October 1, 2026

Another Anniversary for Barry Zalma, Inc

Posted on October 1, 2026 by Barry Zalma
From October 1, 1979 – 2026

Post 4854

Read the full issue of ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ZIFL-10-01-2026.pdf Forty seven years ago today I left the world of the employed and became an entrepreneur by opening my own law firm. The law practice was incorporated shortly thereafter as Barry Zalma, Inc.

When I opened for business on October 1, 1979, I had no clients and no certainty that I would have any in the future. I had borrowed money from the bank to carry me through the first six months and was concerned about my ability to pay the loan with my third child about to be born.

Much to my surprise and pleasure, on October 1, 1979, at 8:10 a.m., the best claims handler in the London market, Alan Warboys, called from London and provided me with my first case as an independent lawyer to represent Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London. He, and the Lloyd’s Underwriters he represented, showed faith in me as a lawyer and insurance expert. Alan is now, although ...

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September 30, 2026
Suing for Services Provided, and Paid for, is Fraud

Defendants Successfully Moved for Summary Judgment

Post 4854

Posted on September 30, 2026 by Barry Zalma

In Jeffrey Wayne Phillips v. Creative Website Studios, et al., No. 5:23-CV-568-BO-BM, United States District Court, E.D. North Carolina, Western Division (September 28, 2026) the Court needed to rule on the order and memorandum and recommendation (“M&R”) of the Magistrate.

Jeffrey Wayne Phillips had contracted with Creative Website Studios and SR Telecommunications for website and hosting services. He alleged that defendants repeatedly billed him for hosting periods he had already paid for and later took down his website. Phillips claimed the outage prevented him from bidding on U.S. government security contracts and sought roughly $300 million in consequential damages.
LAW

Under North Carolina law, fraud requires a false material representation or concealment, intent and effect of deception, resulting damage, and reasonable reliance. Obtaining property by false pretenses similarly requires an ...

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September 29, 2026
Court Partially Limits Evidence to Present at Trial

Accused of 17 Counts Of Fraud Attempts to Keep Out Evidence of Crimes

Post 4853

Posted on September 29, 2026 by Barry Zalma

Court Refuses to Grant Most Motions in Limine

In United States Of America v. Seth Allen Aikens, II, Criminal No. 22-119, United States District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania (September 23, 2026) Defendant Seth Allen Aikens II faces thirty federal counts. The indictment alleges that, from about June 2016 through March 2020, Aikens solicited start-up businesses seeking websites, applications, hosting, payment processing, and related services. The Government estimated aggregate losses of approximately $1.3 million involving about eight charged customers.

The Government also sought to introduce evidence involving three uncharged persons. Robert Polonsky allegedly paid about $10,000 for web development, hosting, and advertising services but did not receive the promised core deliverables. Brandon Canwright allegedly paid approximately $1,877 for a website and related services that were not delivered and received no ...

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