TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

The sentence: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter of the alphabet.

“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”. ?

There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: “abstemious” and “facetious.”

What does that have to do with real estate? Not a darn thing.
But I thought it was kinda interesting.

What a crock. If there is any possible way to get out of defending a broker or agent, they’ll find it. And they are sneaky about it.

Just this week, a broker was sued, named as one of nearly a dozen defendants in one of those foreclosure “you shouldn’t have given me the loan in the first place” cases.

The broker tendered it to the E&O carrier, who picked a lawyer for the broker – and that lawyer never did a thing. I mean – NOTHING. Weeks went by, and the broker contacted the carrier again – asking if there was going to be coverage…

“Sure” said the Carrier. Who assigned a new lawyer. But nearly 60 days had already gone by. And the complaint needed to be answered within 30!

Oh, and the carrier issued a “Reservation of Rights” letter too. Finally.

Here’s the sneaky part. The Carrier’s letter stated that it was reserving the right to pay on the claim, and listed two reasons. Then it said, there might be other reasons too, that it hadn’t yet listed all of them. Huh?

The reasons the Carrier did list were: no payments on punitive damages (that’s public policy in CA), and the potential that the claim was known before the policy took effect. OK, so far.

The complaint accused the broker of intentional misconduct. It also claimed the broker was negligent. When that happens the broker gets to pick its own lawyer – which the Carrier has to pay for.

But did the Carrier say that in it’s reservation of rights letter? Hell no. Why not?

Because if the Carrier did say that, the broker would know it could pick its own attorney – and the Carrier doesn’t want that. It wants to use inept attorneys like the one who never responded in the first place.

You get what you pay for.

So, have you EVER been told of the right you have to pick your own attorney? Ever once?

I didn’t think so.

That’s a problem for the broker, because E&O (errors and omissions) insurance doesn’t cover ‘intentional misconduct’ claims. E&O insurance, however, will pay for defending both claims, if they are brought in the same lawsuit, but the carriers also reserve their right to not pay punitive damages. When that happens – a conflict exists between the insurance carrier and the broker.

That’s when we step in: as the handpicked attorneys for the broker. Insurance companies don’t generally tell a broker (or an agent) that they have the right to pick their own lawyer to defend them – and have that lawyer paid for by the E&O Carrier.

Why? Because E&O Carriers can restrict the aggressiveness of the defense provided by their handpicked “panel counsel” when defending claims, by forcing panel counsel to enter into “Litigation Management” Agreements that place limits on the activities of those panel lawyers.

HLF clients have chosen us to defend them, when the circumstances allow for it (and they generally do!) because of our expertise in real estate law (after all, many of us were, or are, brokers too), and the aggressive way we defend claims. All claims.