Find Lawyers in Tampa, Florida for Insurance Law
An aggressive litigator, Karina Perez Ilic has diverse expertise in civil litigation including catastrophic workplace accidents, contracts, commercial disputes, premises liability, and Tampa motor vehicle accidents. She is not afraid to be a fierce advocate for clients who have been wronged or injured. A Florida native, she ventured to New Orleans to receive her bachelor’s degree in business law with a minor in French language at Tulane University. She continued her legal education in N...
Lawrence Ingram concentrates his practice in professional liability, qui tam and health care fraud, trade secrets and restrictive covenants, and insurance coverage. In the area of professional liability, his practice focuses on the litigation and trial defense of professional malpractice claims against insurance agents and attorneys. Mr. Ingram has defended in excess of 350 professional liability suits during his career. He is recognized as the preferred defense counsel by a number of insurer...
Matt Litsky’s practice focuses on complex first party insurance coverage, litigation, and counseling. He handles various first-party matters including claims involving catastrophes (hurricanes and earthquakes), suspected burning, fraud, theft, business interruption, condominium losses, collapse, appraisal, jeweler’s block and motor losses (physical damage and motor truck cargo). He also specializes in first and third party bad faith matters. Mr. Litsky has handled and litigated ma...
Mr. Martino graduated from Jesuit High School in 1970; and from the University of Florida in 1974 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Zoology. His Juris Doctorate degree was awarded in 1979 from South Texas College of Law in Houston. Mr. Martino and his wife live in South Tampa and have three grown and married children. Mr. Martino enjoys golf, hunting and fishing, is a member of the Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club, the Belleair Golf and Country Club, and is a member of Christ the K...
Erin Raschke practices in the area of insurance and reinsurance. She has exclusively represented insurers and their agents since she joined Phelps Dunbar in January 2008. Her practice is focused on complex insurance coverage, counseling, and litigation and includes advising and defending insurers regarding allegations of insurer “bad faith.” Erin advises surplus lines and admitted, both foreign and domestic, insurance carriers and routinely represents them in both state and federa...
Attorney Silvia Amador Brett fearlessly defends Florida residents who have been injured or wrongfully harmed by others. With prior experience defending civil cases in personal injury protection, motor vehicle accidents, and investigation of fraud, she brings a unique perspective to the team. After graduating in 2013 from the University of Central Florida with her bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies and minors in both Spanish and Psychology, she earned her Juris Doctorate from Stetson Uni...
Katie Tilka practices in the area of insurance and reinsurance and focuses on complex insurance coverage, litigation, and counseling matters. Prior to joining Phelps Dunbar, Katie was a litigation attorney for a regional law firm serving the financial services and real estate industries.
Michael McGriskin practices in the area of insurance and reinsurance. He has exclusively represented insurers and their agents since he joined Phelps Dunbar in 2013. His practice is focused on complex insurance coverage, counseling, and litigation and includes advising and defending insurers regarding allegations of insurer “bad faith.” Michael’s litigation experience encompasses a range of insurance coverage matters. He represents admitted and surplus lines insurers regardi...
Catriana Messina practices in the area of insurance. She has exclusively represented insurers and their agents since she joined Phelps Dunbar in 2014. Her practice is focused on complex first-party insurance coverage matters arising under homeowners, commercial property, builders risk, catastrophe and other property insurance policies, including but not limited to hurricane claims, sinkhole claims, and claims involving suspected arson, fire, fraud, vandalism, theft, collapse, business interru...
Nicolas focuses his practice on civil litigation in state court in the area of insurance defense. Prior to joining the firm, he practiced in the same area at another firm representing clients throughout the State of Florida. Nicolas was also a former Assistant Public Defender for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit serving indigent Hillsborough County residents. Nicolas has handled thousands of cases and litigated both criminal and civil cases in both jury and non-jury trials. While in law school...
Justin Shindore practices in the area of insurance and reinsurance. He represents insurers and their agents in complex insurance coverage, litigation and counseling matters. Justin’s experience includes providing coverage and claims-handling guidance to commercial liability carriers, serving as monitoring counsel for public-entity insurers regarding pending litigation and legislative claim bills, litigating coverage issues under policies of lender-placed insurance and representing busin...
Mallory Thomas practices in the area of insurance and reinsurance. Her practice focuses on complex insurance coverage litigation and counseling. She represents surplus and admitted insurers in state and federal court in Florida in third-party coverage matters arising under commercial general liability, commercial auto, professional liability, premises liability and personal liability policies, including issues such as the duty to defend, duty to indemnify, work-related injuries, assault and b...
Insurance Law Definition
Insurance policies sold to corporate policyholders protect against a wide variety of risks, including liability or loss resulting from: (i) allegedly defective products (including medical devices and pharmaceuticals), (ii) data breaches and other internet-related claims, (iii) mass torts, including exposure to harmful substances such as asbestos and silica, (iv) property damage and business interruption, (v) man-made and natural disasters, (vi) securities and business torts (often involving shareholder class actions and/or SEC investigations and enforcement actions), (vii) environmental damage, (viii) employment claims (including worker’s compensation and discrimination claims), (ix) professional liability, and (x) and crime/fraud. The major types of insurance policies purchased by corporate policyholders include general liability policies, directors and officers liability policies, fiduciary liability policies, employment practices liability policies, errors and omissions and professional liability policies, first-party property and business interruption policies, marine insurance, crime/fraud policies, workers compensation policies, environmental impairment policies, and a wide variety of specialty products (e.g., media policies, satellite launch and in-orbit insurance, product recall policies, cargo policies, product tampering policies, event cancellation coverage). Major markets for buying and selling insurance include the United States, London, Bermuda, and Europe.
Insurance programs sold to and purchased by corporate policyholders typically include several layers of insurance, with a primary insurance policy that often sits above a deductible (or self-insured retention) and with multiple layers of excess policies sitting above the primary policy. Large claims can often implicate coverage under dozens of policies sometimes spanning years or decades. In contrast, individual policyholders typically purchase life insurance, health insurance, disability and/or long-term care insurance, homeowners or renters insurance, automobile insurance, and sometimes specialty insurance, such as coverage for jewelry or works of art, travel insurance, etc.
Law firms provide clients with insurance coverage counseling and advice on a wide array of issues, ranging from assessments of coverage for particular losses and representation in coverage disputes to providing help with assembling a coverage portfolio and formulating favorable policy language when insurance is being purchased or renewed. Firms also advise clients regarding the insurance assets being transferred in corporate transactions, with tax planning in connection with insurance payments or recoveries, and with alternative underwriting programs, such as captive insurance entities.
Policyholders and insurers dealing with significant losses often call on outside coverage counsel for advice and assistance in pursuing coverage or responding to claims for coverage, as the case may be. In the event of a dispute over coverage for a particular claim, the insurer and insured may resort to litigation, arbitration, or mediation to resolve their differences. If the parties proceed to litigation, the case may proceed in either federal or state court, even though the substantive insurance law issues are decided as a matter of state law. Some insurance policies require the parties to resolve coverage disputes through either domestic or international arbitration. In recent years, an increasing number of large disputes have been resolved through international arbitration, often in London or Bermuda. In many cases, experienced coverage counsel can facilitate resolution of a coverage dispute without having to resort to the courts (or to arbitration). In other cases, settlement negotiations proceed on a parallel track while the litigation (or arbitration) moves forward.
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