Field notes
Settlement benchmarks, the workflows that survive carrier review, and the state deadlines that close files early. No SaaS filler. Every number cites its source.
Latest · Workflow
The line item a carrier left off an Xactimate estimate is rarely one argument. It is a quantity question, a code question, or a coverage question, and each is won with a different attachment to the supplement.
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The library
Comparison
A buyer's guide for public adjusters: judge AI claim software by whether it can prove a licensed human reviewed and approved every consequential decision, grounded in the June 2026 Texas TDI bulletin, the NAIC's insurer-only scope, and a federal discovery order.
9 min read
Industry data
The trade-count rule public adjusters argue at the desk appears in neither of the appellate decisions that control overhead and profit on an ACV payment. What the courts asked instead, and the clause that decides it.
3 min read
Trend analysis
Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal held in Healthy Food Experts v. AmGuard that paying a coverage judgment does not bar a first-party bad-faith claim for extra-contractual damages. What it means for how you document carrier delay.
2 min read
Trend analysis
Texas's May 2026 In re Ace American ruling forces appraisal but leaves bad-faith and §542 prompt-pay claims intact — so the appraisal award becomes the evidence for the claim that survives it.
9 min read
State legal
Florida gives supplemental claims 18 months and reopened claims only 12, and the split turns on whether the carrier's file was open. With every 2024 storm window now shut, what is left is the five-year contract clock and a new Fourth DCA ruling on carrier delay.
9 min read
Trend analysis
Roughly 900 Oklahoma lawsuits accuse State Farm of a 'functional damage' hail standard its policies never mention. Here is what the litigation — and 36 O.S. § 3629 plus Christian bad-faith law — means for working an Oklahoma roof claim.
5 min read
Data journalism
A primary-source investigation into a profession the data barely counts: public-adjuster licensing, catastrophe frequency, litigation, and the measurement gap, 2018-2026.
19 min read
State legal
Since July 1, 2024, Louisiana hurricane claims run on R.S. 22:1892.2, not the 30-day track most deadline guides still publish. The clocks, the mandatory cure period notice, and the clause that suspends prescription.
8 min read
Comparison
Carrier-side assignment platforms grade adjusters on price-list deviation, overhead-and-profit rates, and reinspection variance. Every metric that earns a green score is a metric a public adjuster is paid to violate. A look at the scoreboard, the statute, and the billing engine.
8 min read
Workflow
Two identical supply-line failures, an $9,400 gap and a $61,000 settlement. A public adjuster's workflow for measuring the affected area, sampling with an outdoor control, and building a mold file that survives a sworn proof of loss.
8 min read
Industry data
150,000 pages of internal slides show how insurers turned claims into a profit center. What the Allstate–McKinsey documents mean for every claim you work.
7 min read
Industry data
A breakdown of photo counts, page totals, document categories, and settlement timelines drawn from public adjuster field practice.
8 min read
Trend analysis
Property reinsurance rates dropped double digits at the January 2026 renewals, but reinsurers held their attachment points. Here is why the softening never reaches the claims a public adjuster works.
6 min read
State legal
In New York the deadline that ends a property claim is not a prompt-pay statute — it is the standard fire policy's 24-month suit limit, running from the date of loss.
7 min read
Comparison
Snapsheet and claimOS both call it mobile-first claim handling. One serves the carrier settling the loss, the other the public adjuster recovering it. A sourced look at how the two actually differ.
5 min read
Workflow
How public adjusters document a water dry-out — category and class calls, daily psychrometric drying logs, and Xactimate WTR equipment — so the mitigation invoice survives carrier review.
7 min read
Industry data
Closure rate isn't cycle time. What the public catastrophe data hides about how long carriers take to actually pay after a hurricane — and the statutory clocks that give adjusters leverage.
8 min read
Trend analysis
What public adjusters really earn in 2026 — contingency math, state fee caps, the OPPAGA settlement data, and why two adjusters under identical contracts can clear $58,000 or $190,000.
6 min read
State legal
Three 2025 appellate decisions reshaped California bad-faith exposure for carriers — and the evidence standard for public adjusters working smoke, fire, and title claims. Here's what changed and when your SOL clock runs out.
7 min read
Comparison
Guidewire ClaimCenter powers 550+ carriers worldwide. Here's what that means for public adjusters — and why having your own purpose-built system matters more when the carrier's stack is sophisticated.
7 min read
Workflow
Two roofs, one hailstorm, an $18,000 gap in the payout. What separates a paid hail replacement from a cosmetic denial is the test square, the storm record, and the policy language — here is how to put each in the file.
5 min read
Industry data
There is no clean average-days-to-settle figure by peril. What there is: a predictable map of where hail, wind, water, and fire each hide their delay — and a statutory clock that runs the same for all of them.
6 min read
Trend analysis
Carriers now triage, score, and assemble property estimates with AI before a human opens the file. Where that automation is accurate, where it underpays, and how a public adjuster pushes back.
5 min read
State legal
A working calendar for Florida property losses after SB 2-A and HB 837: the one-year notice rule, the 7/30/60 carrier deadlines, § 627.70152 pre-suit notice, and how the bad-faith landscape changed.
8 min read
Reference
The LOR is the smallest document on a property claim file and one of the most consequential. What goes in it, how state law treats it, where it breaks down, and a working template a firm can adapt the same day.
7 min read
Comparison
Symbility (now Cotality) prices the scope. For a public adjusting firm that leaves intake, evidence, drafting, supplements, and the client file unmanaged. A field comparison of where each tool fits.
7 min read
Workflow
How a public adjuster works a fire file in sequence — the site walk, the five-layer scope, the contents inventory, and the sworn proof of loss that becomes the number you can't walk back.
7 min read
Industry data
Where 2026's hail claim volume is concentrating, read off State Farm's $5.6B payout map, and what the state-by-state movement means for a public adjusting firm's calendar.
6 min read
Trend analysis
How Florida's SB 2-A and HB 837 reshaped property-claim carrier behavior — denial rates, DOAH arbitration, the 90-day bad-faith safe harbor, and what the 2026 file looks like for public adjusters.
6 min read
One field guide per state: the statutory clocks, prompt-payment penalties, bad-faith posture, and suit limitations that govern a first-party property claim. More states are in the research queue.
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