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Property Insurance Post-Irma, and Pre-2018 Hurricane Season

Merlin Law Group
Chip Merlin

Hurricane Irma caused major damage all across southwest Florida last year, and while many people have wrapped up their repairs, and the insurance claims that covered them, some people are still struggling to find closure. Plus, because of the massive damage caused by the storm, insurance companies are facing an increase in lawsuits against them. We’re joined by Chip Merlin, he’s founder and president of Merlin Law Group, and he focuses on commercial & residential property insurance claim disputes and bad faith insurance litigation. We're talking with him about long claim settlement waits and the role of a public adjuster.

 

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.