A Sunshine State Town Hall: The AOB is Dead…Now What?

An All Star Panel Weighs-in: Harvey Cohen, John Lapotaire, David Popper & Peter Crosa. Joining Radio Joe from South Florida, the Restoration Global Watchdog will be On site with a Live Audience!

Many in the restoration industry feel July 1^st, 2019 was a dark day for Florida’s policyholders, disaster victims and those who service their emergency mitigation, drying, mold remediation, restoration and reconstruction needs after a loss or weather event! A Town Hall was held Thursday, July 11th in South Florida to address the restoration and remediation marketplace in the post AOB era. IAQradio will be covering the proceedings and key issues raised and discussed at the Town Hall on this week’s show.

An All-Star panel lead by Harvey V. Cohen, Esq. the founding partner of Orlando-based Cohen Law Group (CLG) will provide Town Hall attendees with a variety of options to service customers and protect their companies’ interests. The Tallahassee insurance lobby won the AOB battle by crushing Florida’s Fee Shifting statute which had enabled mitigation and restoration contractors to service Florida policyholders at their time of greatest need with the assurance they would be fairly compensated for the service.

Joining Cohen on the panel will be fellow Orlando-based attorney David H. Popper who specializes in contract law and on occasion will have an overlapping interest in an insurance claim that both firms are involved in. Popper will provide useful advice to Town Hall attendees on the use of legal agreements and forms Florida based restorers and contractors should consider using to be in compliance with state and local statues and to ensure they get paid for their services.

Joining Cohen and Popper on the panel will be well known and respected environmental consultant (IEP), expert witness and licensed Florida mold assessor John Lapotaire, CEIC. John and his wife Lydia Lapotaire are well- known in the their home market of Orlando and throughout  the Sunshine state for loss evaluation, project specification and oversight, post remediation verification (PRV) and expert opinion when called upon.

The panel will be rounded out with the perspective of Peter Crosa, AIC, RPA and former President of the NAIIA the trade association for independent insurance adjusters.  Crosa is a frequent speaker at property restoration industry meetings and published author in industry trade journals. Crosa is well known for his marketing seminars for the restoration industry based on his book, ”Soft Selling Hardened Claims Adjusters”.

Moderating the Town Hall will be industry Adviser and Facilitator Pete Consigli, CR, WLS. Consigli is an Honorary Member of the Restoration Industry Association (RIA) and the association’s historian. Well known as IAQradio’s “Restoration Global Watchdog”, Consigli is recognized for his passionate advocacy for restoration contractors world-wide. Consigli will kick-off the panel by offering “A Contractor’s Perspective” on the issues based on 2 decades of historical data. History teaches us one important lesson, if we don’t learn from mistakes of the past; they are bound to be repeated!

The Town Hall is being Co-hosted by IAQradio sponsor AEML, Inc. Microbiology Laboratories and the Cohen Law Group. The Z-man is unavailable this week, so join Join Radio Joe and the Global Watchdog making his IAQradio preview as a co-host for this week’s podcast.

Joe manning the studio and Pete on the ground reporting from the field on the happenings from one of the country’s most important states to watch as the insurance lobby pushes its agenda and restoration industry advocacy groups battle back to level the insurance claims playing field for the greater good of Florida’s policyholders/disaster victims and their chosen “Restoration Contractor of Record” (RCR)! It should be an interesting and dynamic show with a live audience on the ground joining the watchdog and the all star panel from South Florida!