Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Socrates are fundamental historical figures, but none of them left direct writings documenting their own words or teachings. However, their ideas have been transmitted through other people, texts, and traditions, which raises interesting reflections."

USAA Punished for it Claims Handling Punitive Damages Should be Awarded With Caution and Within Narrow Limits Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/usaa-punished-claims-handling-barry-zalma-esq-cfe-nbp2c, see the full video at and at and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4950 posts. Posted on December 19, 2024 by Barry Zalma DISPUTE OVER HURRICANE DAMAGES RESULTS IN MAJOR PUNITIVE DAMAGES FOR BAD FAITH Although he Mississippi Supreme Court recognized the need to only award punitive damages with caution and within narrow limits, it did not limit its award in accordance with that maxim. After almost 19 years of litigation the last appeal resolved the various disputes. FACTS Hurricane Katrina destroyed Paul and Sylvia Minor’s home on August 29, 2005. The Minors had a homeowner’s insurance policy with United Services Automobile Association (USAA). The USAA policy covered damage caused by wind but excluded damage caused by storm surge or flood. The Minors reported their loss with USAA, which resulted in a years-long coverage dispute. USAA ultimately issued payments for damage it concluded was caused by wind but not for damage it concluded was caused by storm surge or flood. The Minors maintained that they suffered a total loss caused by wind and demanded that USAA pay the policy limits. The case proceeded to trial in 2013, and the jury awarded the Minors $1,547,293.37 in compensatory damages. In United Services Automobile Association v. Estate Of Sylvia F. Minor, Kathryn Minor and Stephen Minor, No. 2023-CA-00049-SCT, Supreme Court of Mississippi, En Banc (December 5, 2024) resolved the bad faith claims. The issue was ultimately presented to a jury. The jury awarded the Minors $10,000,000 in punitive damages and $457,858.89 in extra-contractual damages (solely attorneys’ fees). USAA appealed, raising several assignments of error. Trial To establish its bad faith claim, the Minor Estate introduced various USAA documents, including (1) portions of the USAA underwriting file; (2) the confidential email regarding (a) the engineer’s March 2006 findings and (b) Bergstrom’s conclusion that USAA would be responsible for paying for all the windows and the contents in rooms with windows; and (3) USAA’s letter to the Minors in June 2006 indicating the majority of damage was due to flooding. Punitive Damages Punitive damages are considered an ‘extraordinary remedy’ and should be awarded ‘with caution and within narrow limits.'” The Supreme Court found that the evidence presented at trial demonstrates a type of conduct for which punitive damages were designed. The Minor Estate provided sufficient proof that USAA acted in bad faith, with complete disregard for the Estate’s rights. Whether The $10 Million Punitive Damages Award Should Be Reversed Or, Alternatively, Reduced. USAA alternatively argues that the $10 million verdict should be reduced because it claims that the damages award is a 22:1 ratio and therefore unconstitutionally disproportionate to the extra-contractual damages awarded ($457,858.89). USAA relies on State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co. v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408, 425, 123 S.Ct. 1513, 1524, 155 L.Ed.2d 585 (2003), which states that “[s]ingle-digit multipliers are more likely to comport with due process.” USAA argued that a 1:1 ratio should apply to the damages award here. The Supreme Court found that punitive damages is less than seven times the amount of compensatory damages, which it concluded clearly falls within the guideline provided in Campbell. A punitive damages award not only serves as a deterrent, it also compensates the plaintiff for its public service in bringing the action. The Supreme Court found the trial court’s decision to force the Minor Estate to use nearly half of its award to pay attorneys’ fees does not adequately compensate the Estate for bringing this action against USAA for its bad faith conduct in handling the Minors’ insurance claim from 2005. Therefore, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court erred by denying the Estate’s post-trial motion for attorneys’ fees. CONCLUSION In sum, the trial judge did not err as a matter of law by submitting the issue of punitive damages to jury, and the $10 million award of punitive damages is not unconstitutionally disproportionate. The Supreme Court affirmed the jury verdict awarding the Minor Estate $10 million in punitive damages and $457,858.89 in extra-contractual damages as to attorneys’ fees and reverse the judgment of the trial court and render attorneys’ fees on behalf of the Estate in the amount of $4,500,000, plus post-judgment interest at an annual rate of 4 percent from October 3, 2022, the date of judgment, until paid. ZALMA OPINION This case that dragged on through the courts of Mississippi for 19 years and resulted in compensatory damages based upon an interpretation finding coverage for the estate and that the insurer’s conduct was so egregious that the estate was entitled to tort damages plus punitive damages many times more than the compensatory damages. The Supreme Court astonishingly concluded that punitive damages were not limited to punishing the insurer but were payment to the estate for its action on behalf of everyone in the state of Mississippi and that they should not be required to pay their lawyers but that payment should come from the insurer as part of its punishment. The Supreme Court ignored the fact that as a result the estate must pay income taxes on the punishment damages since they are not designed to make the insured whole and punished each member and insured of USAA. In my opinion it’s time the courts of the USA do away with the tort of bad faith to avoid excessive judgments and allow contract disputes to be enlarged into a major amount of punishment for an insurer who rejected a claim based on interpretation of contract terms and the facts of a loss, like this case. In that regard see my book, It’s Time to Abolish The Tort of Bad Faith Available as a paperback here. Available as a Kindle book here. (c) 2024 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this blog and the videos and let them subscribe to the blog and the videos. Subscribe to my substack at https://barryzalma.substack.com/subscribe Go to X @bzalma; Go to Newsbreak.com https://www.newsbreak.com/@c/1653419?s=01; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://lnkd.in/gwEYk

Everything is tied to it. Skills integrate and flow together in a way that all of it helps develop your character. I'm not sure any other game can do this better than Runescape and it's likely to be beneficial, considering that because an experience that's been in existence for as long as Runescape has to have a motive for its longevity in the category. Its Ironman mode is a great new feature in an old game. Long may it last. Old school RuneScape players who want to earn new skins and cosmetics through slogging across the classic game's contents can begin doing so today, when the game launches the brand new Quest Speedrunning Worlds. The server is an entirely distinct members-only variant of the game that has specific rules and restrictions. In order to begin a speedrunning session participants will have to choose a challenge upon logging on to the server. This quest they'll need to finish as quickly as they can. To ensure fairness in the competition the character's level will be automatically adapted to the appropriate level for the quest chosen. The quests will only be available when the game launches and ten more will be added in the coming five months. Points and awards for Speedrunning are given based on the speed at which the quest can be completed. These points can be used to purchase a variety of cosmetic and reward items, such as Adventurer's Outfits with different tiers, Speedy Teleport Scrolls, and the Giant Stopwatch item. Quest Speedrunning World is open! Quest Speedrunning World is officially in operation as of this writing to those who wish to tackle the challenge. "Quest Speedrunning Worlds open. Go to the Quest Speedrunning World and smash those bars!" Jagex tweeted. "Show us your fastest times, but above all else, enjoy yourself!" Jagex revealed today as part of the 300 million account celebrations, they'll launch Fresh Start servers for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape on September 12th for RS3 and in October for OSRS. The name suggests that they'll be completely new servers on which players can begin from scratch in the same way as all other players. The servers that are fresh starts are only available for a certain period of time (4 months) and characters will be moved to normal servers following the duration of the event. RuneScape Fresh Start Worlds are set to be available for four months which will allow players to revisit RuneScape in a group as they go back to iconic cities, unforgettable quests, zones of improvement and boss fights and all of them with increased gaming boosts and XP. Players can return to the main game at any time, with their newly-levelled character as well as their abundant rewards, which include new clothing and pet skins, as well as alternative capes for skill and rare tradeable rewards. For those who are competitive, they can also take advantage of an eight-week competition focusing on high scores and world-firsts. Old School RuneScape Fresh Start Worlds will be launched in October, and will offer players an exciting challenge and chance. In contrast to RuneScape, Old School Fresh Start Worlds won't get the XP boost, meaning players must depend on their own wits to make progress. It will provide players with the exact Old School RuneScape experience players are familiar with, but they'll be stepping into the world of new economic system and high scores waiting to be earned. Six months after the launchdate, players will be able to have their avatars transferred to an official game server in order to ensure that they can play for many years to the future. Rsorder.com: The most professional site to Buy OSRS Gold/RS3 Gold, items, accounts, power leveling, and questing services.

#ClimateChange and #GlobaklWarming is a #HOAX! You have mentally ill people around the world claiming that CO2 is causing this BS "Climate Change" yet these same people generally have NO IDEA how much CO2 is even in our atmosphere! It's a mere 0.04% by the way, very little CO2 is a gas of LIFE! It is what humans exhale after breathing in oxygen... And in PERFECT BALANCE the plants BREATHE IN CO2 AND EXHALE OXYGEN! It's a perfect system. Yet, we have zealots bent on #Eugenics who want to kill us all... and if not KILL, they definitely want to CONTROL everyone! Their fictional "Climate Change" narrative is designed to give them FULL CONTROL OVER THE EARTH AND EVERYONE IN IT! These #Criminals will do whatever it takes to gain control over all of mankind! And that includes spraying TOXINS into our skies, poisoning the entire agricultural system, all men and women, and even the water! These lunatics have been trying to accomplish this #Evil plan for over 150 years! And it is time they are STOPPED! These morons have no more rights to this earth than we do.... And there are BILLIONS OF US opposed to poisoning our earth and ourselves! It's about time that we start acting like it! These people belong in PRISON Here's the short list of LIES we have been told about how "Climate is going to kill us all" PURELY FICTION AND LIES! Scientists seeking funding and journalists seeking an audience agree: panic sells. “Global cooling is going to kills us all!” “No, wait: global warming is going to kill us all!” Here's the list - an amazing chronology of the last 120 years of scare-mongering on climate 1895 - Geologists Think theWorld May Be Frozen Up Again – New York Times, February 1895 1902 - “Disappearing Glaciers…deteriorating slowly, with a persistency that means their final annihilation…scientific fact…surely disappearing.” – Los Angeles Times 1912 - Prof. Schmidt Warns Us of an Encroaching Ice Age – New York Times, October 1912 1923 - “Scientist says Arctic ice will wipe out Canada” – Professor Gregory of Yale University, American representative to the Pan-Pacific Science Congress, – Chicago Tribune 1923 - “The discoveries of changes in the sun’s heat and the southward advance of glaciers in recent years have given rise to conjectures of the possible advent of a new ice age” – Washington Post 1924 - MacMillan Reports Signs of New Ice Age – New York Times, Sept 18, 1924 1929 - “Most geologists think the world is growing warmer, and that it will continue to get warmer” – Los Angeles Times, in Is another ice age coming? 1932 - “If these things be true, it is evident, therefore that we must be just teetering on an ice age” – The Atlantic magazine, This Cold, Cold World 1933 - America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise – New York Times, March 27th, 1933 1933 – “…wide-spread and persistent tendency toward warmer weather…Is our climate changing?” – Federal Weather Bureau “Monthly Weather Review.” 1938 - Global warming, caused by man heating the planet with carbon dioxide, “is likely to prove beneficial to mankind in several ways, besides the provision of heat and power.”– Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 1938 - “Experts puzzle over 20 year mercury rise…Chicago is in the front rank of thousands of cities thuout the world which have been affected by a mysterious trend toward warmer climate in the last two decades” – Chicago Tribune 1939 - “Gaffers who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right… weather men have no doubt that the world at least for the time being is growing warmer” – Washington Post 1952 - “…we have learned that the world has been getting warmer in the last half century” – New York Times, August 10th, 1962 1954 - “…winters are getting milder, summers drier. Glaciers are receding, deserts growing” – U.S. News and World Report 1954 - Climate – the Heat May Be Off – Fortune Magazine 1959 - “Arctic Findings in Particular Support Theory of Rising Global Temperatures” – New York Times 1969 - “…the Arctic pack ice is thinning and that the ocean at the North Pole may become an open sea within a decade or two” – New York Times, February 20th, 1969 1969 – “If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000″ — Paul Ehrlich (while he now predicts doom from global warming, this quote only gets honorable mention, as he was talking about his crazy fear of overpopulation) 1970 - “…get a good grip on your long johns, cold weather haters – the worst may be yet to come…there’s no relief in sight” – Washington Post 1974 - Global cooling for the past forty years – Time Magazine 1974 - “Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age” –Washington Post 1974 - “As for the present cooling trend a number of leading climatologists have concluded that it is very bad news indeed” – Fortune magazine, who won a Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics for its analysis of the danger 1974 - “…the facts of the present climate change are such that the most optimistic experts would assign near certainty to major crop failure…mass deaths by starvation, and probably anarchy and violence” – New York Times Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age 1975 - Scientists Ponder Why World’s Climate is Changing; A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable – New York Times, May 21st, 1975 1975 - “The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind” Nigel Calder, editor, New Scientist magazine, in an article in International Wildlife Magazine 1976 - “Even U.S. farms may be hit by cooling trend” – U.S. News and World Report 1981 - Global Warming – “of an almost unprecedented magnitude” – New York Times 1988 - I would like to draw three main conclusions. Number one, the earth is warmer in 1988 than at any time in the history of instrumental measurements. Number two, the global warming is now large enough that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship to the greenhouse effect. And number three, our computer climate simulations indicate that thegreenhouse effect is already large enough to begin to effect the probability of extreme events such as summer heat waves. – Jim Hansen, June 1988 testimony before Congress, see His later quote andHis superior’s objection for context 1989 -“On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but – which means that we must include all doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands and buts. On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people we’d like to see the world a better place, which in this context translates into our working to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climate change. To do that we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, means getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. This “double ethical bind” we frequently find ourselves in cannot be solved by any formula. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. I hope that means being both.” – Stephen Schneider, lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,Discover magazine, October 1989 1990 - “We’ve got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing – in terms of economic policy and environmental policy” – Senator Timothy Wirth 1993 - “Global climate change may alter temperature and rainfall patterns, many scientists fear, with uncertain consequences for agriculture.” – U.S. News and World Report 1998 - No matter if the science [of global warming] is all phony . . . climate change [provides] the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.” —Christine Stewart, Canadian Minister of the Environment, Calgary Herald, 1998 2001 - “Scientists no longer doubt that global warming is happening, and almost nobody questions the fact that humans are at least partly responsible.” – Time Magazine, Monday, Apr. 09, 2001 2003 - Emphasis on extreme scenarios may have been appropriate at one time, when the public and decision-makers were relatively unaware of the global warming issue, and energy sources such as “synfuels,” shale oil and tar sands were receiving strong consideration” – Jim Hansen, NASA Global Warming activist, Can we defuse The Global Warming Time Bomb?, 2003 2006 - “I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.” — Al Gore, Grist magazine, May 2006 2006 – “It is not a debate over whether the earth has been warming over the past century. The earth is always warming or cooling, at least a few tenths of a degree…” —Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology at MIT 2006 – “What we have fundamentally forgotten is simple primary school science. Climate always changes. It is always…warming or cooling, it’s never stable. And if it were stable, it would actually be interesting scientifically because it would be the first time for four and a half billion years.” —Philip Stott, emeritus professor of bio-geography at the University of London 2006 - “Since 1895, the media has alternated between global cooling and warming scares during four separate and sometimes overlapping time periods. From 1895 until the 1930’s the media peddled a coming ice age. From the late 1920’s until the 1960’s they warned of global warming. From the 1950’s until the 1970’s they warned us again of a coming ice age. This makes modern global warming the fourth estate’s fourth attempt to promote opposing climate change fears during the last 100 years.” –Senator James Inhofe, Monday, September 25, 2006 2007- “I gave a talk recently (on fallacies of global warming) and three members of the Canadian government, the environmental cabinet, came up afterwards and said, ‘We agree with you, but it’s not worth our jobs to say anything.’ So what’s being created is a huge industry with billions of dollars of government money and people’s jobs dependent on it.” – Dr. Tim Ball, Coast-to-Coast, Feb 6, 2007 2008 – “Hansen was never muzzled even though he violated NASA’s official agency position on climate forecasting (i.e., we did not know enough to forecast climate change or mankind’s effect on it). Hansen thus embarrassed NASA by coming out with his claims of global warming in 1988 in his testimony before Congress” – Dr. John S. Theon, retired Chief of the Climate Processes Research Program at NASA, see above for Hansen quotes You can find this article by searching : American Thinker August 4, 2014 "120 years of climate scares" It's time to tell these liars and eugenicists that the jig is up! And their little HOAX is over! Just look at the lunacy these people are printing! It’s Time to Engineer the Sky Global warming is so rampant that some scientists say we should begin altering the stratosphere to block incoming sunlight, even if it jeopardizes rain and crops https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-engineer-the-sky/

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This Is The Most Blistering Takedown Of Zionism You Will Ever Hear SHUT UP AND LISTEN AMERICA (And the world) This was written by Palestinian author and human rights activist Susan Abulhawa, my sister, who possesses a much sharper vocabulary than my own, and a much better personal understanding of the #Evil committed by the #Jewish State of #Israel I stand in awe of her words, and the sentiment behind them! This WILL be mirrored on my channel without a doubt! I detest the #Zionist murderers as much as she does, her sentiments could easily be my own SHARE THIS FAR AND WIDE! 86,381 views Dec 1, 2024 UNITED KINGDOM The Oxford Union debate over Israel hosted the most standout takedown of Israel and Zionism you will have ever heard. It is brilliant. Right, so sometimes you come across a piece of writing or an oratory so profound and so exacting that it literally stops you in your tracks. That is how this particular speech I’ve come across today has left me and I make no apologies for this video being a little longer than usual as a result. It was breathtaking. To be able to write a speech that is so quietly and calmly eviscerating, I think is more powerful than a 100 news articles or political commentaries covering atrocity and I absolutely had to share this with you, shared on social media as it was today by Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley. This has come from Palestinian author and human rights activist Susan Abulhawa, the author of Mornings in Jenin, a story of life set in the aftermath of the 1967 6 day war and a book I now plan on getting as a matter of essential reading. This speech was made at the recent Oxford Union debate, a debate which actually descended into chaos as many students sought to leave the moment they became aware that a former IDF spy was present to speak on behalf of Israel in a debate where the motion presented was ‘This House believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide’ Zionists were apoplectic with rage when the vote came through, passing by 278 to 59 in favour and despite many people speaking in favour of the motion eloquently, emotionally and forcefully, Abulhawa’s contribution is one everyone has to hear. Right, so Susan Abulhawa’s speech to the Oxford Union, speaking in favour of their motion which passed by 278 votes to 59 in favour of believing Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide I think is probably the most powerful statement I’ve ever read in response not just to the events of the last 15 months but long before that too, the daughter of Palestinians expelled by Israel following the 1967 war, this is her history, her heritage and is the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an NGO that builds playgrounds for children in Palestine, as well as UN refugee camps in Lebanon. She was invited to speak in this debate at the Oxford Union and she absolutely did just that and frankly after hearing this only the hardest hearted of Zionists could possibly have voted against the motion. ‘Addressing the challenge of what to do about the indigenous inhabitants of the land Chaim Weizman, a Russian Jew, said to the World Zionist Congress in 1921 that Palestinians were akin to “the rocks of Judea, obstacles that had to be cleared on a difficult path." David Gruen, a Polish Jew, who changed his name to David Ben Gurion to sound relevant to the region, said. "We must expel Arabs and take their places” There are thousands of such conversations among the early zionists who plotted and implemented the violent colonization of Palestine and the annihilation of her native people. But they were only partially successful, murdering or ethnically cleansing 80% of Palestinians, which meant that 20% of us remained, an enduring obstacle to their colonial fantasies, which became the subject of their obsessions in the decades that followed, especially after conquering what remained of Palestine in 1967. https://youtu.be/m4snHu0SOm0

Zalma's Insurance Fraud Letter - December 1, 2024 ZIFL Volume 28 No. 22 Post 4939 Read the full article at Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdfand at https://zalma.com/blog. Subscribe to ZIFL at https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001Gb86hroKqEYVdo-PWnMUkcitKvwMc3HNWiyrn6jw8ERzpnmgU_oNjTrm1U1YGZ7_ay4AZ7_mCLQBKsXokYWFyD_Xo_zMFYUMovVTCgTAs7liC1eR4LsDBrk2zBNDMBPp7Bq0VeAA-SNvk6xgrgl8dNR0BjCMTm_gE7bAycDEHwRXFAoyVjSABkXPPaG2Jb3SEvkeZXRXPDs%3D The Source for the Insurance Fraud Professional https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdf Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter (ZIFL) continues its 28th year of publication dedicated to those involved in reducing the effect of insurance fraud. ZIFL is published 24 times a year by ClaimSchool and is written by Barry Zalma. It is provided FREE to anyone who visits the site at http://zalma.com/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-2/ This issue contains the following articles about insurance fraud: The EUO is a Material Condition Precedent A Key Tool in the Effort to Reduce Fraud Claim Properly Denied for Refusal to Testify at EUO I spoke recently at the Conference of the Southern California Fraud Investigators Association on the Examination Under Oath as a tool to help insureds prove their losses and what happens when an insured fails or refuses to testify. This case emphasizes the purpose of my talk. Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdf Thanksgiving Wishes from the Zalma Family My family and I have much to be thankful for this year. My first born daughter, Stephanie Zalma, continues to care for my wife 24 hours a day 7 days a week with love and patience as Thea continues as Nana to our two grandchildren and the loving mother of our three children. After receiving a new Aortic Heart Valve I am personally in good health, walking about 25 miles a week. Exercising my, apparently unusual mode of retirement, I work only six to eight hours a day doing what I love the most, writing about insurance, insurance claims, insurance law and acting as an insurance claims consultant and expert witness. Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdf More McClenny Moseley & Associates Issues This is ZIFL’s thirty eighth installment of the saga of McClenny, Moseley & Associates and its problems with the federal courts in the State of Louisiana and what appears to be an effort to profit from what some Magistrate and District judges may be criminal to profit from insurance claims relating to hurricane damage to the public of the state of Louisiana. Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdf Ethical Behavior & Insurance Insurance, from the time of its first agreement to the present day has always been a business requiring ethical behavior between the insurer and the insured and between the insured and the insurer. The concept of ethical behavior refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues, all of which are essential to the lawyer. Ethics refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from murder, rape, theft, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that imply virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. There are rights presumed to exist such as those described in the Declaration of Independence submitted to King George of England in 1776 that held: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The unalienable rights also include the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to liberty. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well-founded reasons. Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdf Health Insurance Fraud Convictions Michigan Woman Convicted of $1.4M Health Care Kickback Scheme Mary Smettler-Bolton, 71, of Oakland County, Michigan was convicted November 22, 2024 for her role in a conspiracy to defraud the United States and receive illegal health care kickbacks. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Mary referred Medicare beneficiaries to several Metro Detroit home health companies in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks paid by the owners and operators of the home health companies. Over the course of four years, she and her co-conspirators caused over $1.4 million of loss to Medicare. Smettler-Bolton was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and receive illegal health care kickbacks and one count of violating the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 3, 2025, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the conspiracy count and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the kickback count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Read the full article about dozens more convictions at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdf Convictions of Other Than Health Insurance Fraud Creative Fraudster Guilty of $229K Insurance Fraud Schemes Justin Mack, a native of Buffalo, New York, and a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, was sentenced on November 25, 2024 in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Mack, an Ohio man was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay restitution for filing 24 fraudulent claims with multiple insurance companies, totaling more than $229,000. An extensive investigation uncovered Mack’s pattern of submitting altered documentation, falsified claims, and using other people’s identities to fraudulently secure payouts from multiple insurance companies. Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdf The Examination Under Oath Is Not Part of a Judicial Process Although the EUO is a formal proceeding it is not part of a judicial process nor is it subject to the rules set out by codes of civil procedure. There is no right to object to questions and never a judge present to rule on the objections. The testimony at the EUO is required to be presented in accordance with the obligation imposed on an insured to deal fairly and in good faith with the insurer. Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZIFL-12-01-2024.pdf Barry Zalma Barry Zalma, Inc., 4441 Sepulveda Boulevard, CULVER CITY CA 90230-4847, 310-390-4455. Subscribe to Excellence in Claims Handling at https://barryzalma.substack.com/welcome. Write to Mr. Zalma at [email protected]; https://www.zalma.com; https://zalma.com/blog. He publishes daily articles at https://zalma.substack.com, Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ to consider more than 50 volumes written by Barry Zalma on insurance and insurance claims handling. Go to Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter at https://zalma.com/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-2/; Go to X @bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ and GTTR at https://gettr.com/@zalma

I am Thankful Thanksgiving Wishes from the Zalma Family Post 4938 Posted on November 27, 2024 by Barry Zalma See the full video at and at hope, on this Thanksgiving weekend, that you can join my family and me remembering that it is more important to think about our blessings and those things that we have to be thankful for than to get in line for “Black Friday” to buy an inexpensive flat screen t.v. or tablet. Enjoy the holiday and your family as I will. My family and I have much to be thankful for this year. My first born daughter, Stephanie Zalma, continues to care for my wife 24 hours a day 7 days a week with love and patience as Thea continues as Nana to our two grandchildren and the loving mother of our three children. After receiving a new Aortic Heart Valve I am personally in good health, walking about 25 miles a week. Exercising my, apparently unusual, mode of retirement, I work only six to eight hours a day doing what I love the most, writing about insurance, insurance claims, insurance law and acting as an insurance claims consultant and expert witness. To me, I am thankful for you, my friends, clients and readers of “Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter,” my blog “Zalma on Insurance,” and my books and other writing including the third Edition of the ten volumes of my treatise, “Zalma on Insurance Claims” and the Fourteenth Edition of “Property Investigation Checklists.” As a first generation American I am honored to join with all Americans the ability to celebrate Thanksgiving that started when the United States was a dream and just a colony of Great Britain, to give thanks for the good things in life at least once a year. It took Abraham Lincoln, our greatest President to make it an official holiday. The Thanksgiving holiday gives me and my family the opportunity to consider the blessings we have received and to thank all who have made it possible. Please allow me this opportunity to explain to you all the things I, and my family, can continue to give thanks for: 1. I have loved my wife of almost 57 years since we first met when she was nine and I was twelve. 2. I am thankful that she still loves me and lets me make clear every day that I love her more now than I did when she ignored me when I was 12. 3. My three adult children who are successes in their own right. 4. That my three children who put up with my wife and I, and are healthy, successful, and mostly happy in what they do. 5. My almost eight-year-old granddaughter and my 22 year-old grandson live nearby, my grandson is now a successful college graduate from Puget Sound University in Washington state and working full time in I.T. 6. My clients who, for the more than 57 years have allowed me to earn a living doing what I love. I practiced law until I let my license go inactive, acting as a consultant, testifying as an expert witness and writing materials to help others provide excellence in claims services as members of the insurance profession. 7. My publishers the American Bar Association, Full Court Press, Fastcase.com, Thomson Reuters and Amazon.com. 8. My dearly departed parents and grandparents for having the good sense to leave the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th Century so we could avoid the Holocaust and I could be born American. 9. My country for giving me a place to live and work in peace and complain about it without fear. 10. The state of California, where I was born, and have lived for 82 years, for allowing me to have my home and grow my family, and the ability to pay California’s high taxes for the privilege. 11. Those of you who read what I write and gain something from it. 12. Eighty two years of mostly good health, but for a small heart attack,clogged arteries, a failed Aortic heart valve, ant the surgeons that gave me the ability to continue to work – albeit at a reduced rate. 13. Allowing me the health and ambition to avoid my cardiologist by walking every day and working on my garden and bonsai with one of my Chinese Elms in a pot for more than 49 years. 14. The hundreds of friends I have never met but with whom the Internet has allowed me to communicate in parts of the world I have never visited. 15. The wonder of the Internet that allows me to publish E-books, ZIFL and my blog instantly on line. 16. That my family can get together to express our thanks for each other and our happiness this year again without a need for anything but enjoying each other’s company and some good food. 17. That most of you who I know only by my publications can also gather with your families to express your thanks. When I enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1964, I volunteered ostensibly to avoid the draft and volunteered to serve anywhere in the world. Fortunately, the Army made assignments in alphabetical order and I was sent by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps to Peoria, Illinois where I became a Special Agent in Charge of an office investigating people who sought security clearances. I was trained to be an investigator and enjoyed every minute of the job. Until the Army I had never seen a river without a concrete bottom only to see the mighty Mississippi as my first real river. I had never seen snow other than in the distance on mountains only to find myself shoveling the snow off the driveway in the small half-of-a-house I rented from an old couple who could not do it themselves. My investigative assignments required me to travel throughout Central Illinois from the Iowa to the Indiana borders. I stopped at court houses along the way, all of which had signs that Abraham Lincoln practiced law there. Those experiences with the courts, law enforcement officers, and court personnel probably gave me the incentive to become a lawyer. When I finished my three year enlistment I returned home, proposed marriage to the love of my life, who fortunately for me, accepted. I began the study of law at night and found my first real job where I could use the skills I learned in the Army. I was hired as a claims trainee at the Fireman’s Fund American Insurance Company who spent the time to train me to be a claims adjuster. The training was, unlike modern insurers, thorough. I was required to read a treatise on insurance and insurance claims handling. I was sent out with experienced adjusters in all types of insurance Fireman’s Fund wrote to learn as they adjusted claims, and eventually allowed to deal with the public under close supervision. Contrary to the requirements of the insurance industry at the time, Fireman’s Fund allowed me to study law at night while I worked as a full-time insurance adjuster. I was fortunate enough to work for a claims manager – Coleman T. Mobley – who did not require me to go out of state to adjust major storm claims if it interfered with my law school studies. Since I was in law school 50 weeks a year the only catastrophe storm duty I was required to work was a fire storm that burned from the San Fernando Valley to the ocean at Malibu. Because of Mr. Mobley and the Fireman’s Fund I was able to complete my studies and pass the California Bar in 1971 and be admitted to the California Bar on January 2, 1972. I took a cut in pay to get my first job as an Associate Attorney with a law firm that was willing to teach me to be a lawyer handling every kind of problem a new lawyer could face from wills, tort claims, divorce, drunk driving, trials, depositions, and dozens of orders to show cause in multiple courts around the Inland Empire of California. By doing so, when I started practicing law in 1972, I became a lawyer who could deal with any issue brought to me. I was fortunate enough to be able to move to an insurance law firm in Century City where I was assigned to a coverage lawyer who was trying to deal with over 500 active matters and, who, when I arrived, assigned 250 of the matters to me and pointed me to the firm’s library to learn what to do. At the time new technology was an IBM Selectric typewriter that could erase errors from the keyboard without the need to use white-out paint. I did legal research in the firm’s large library which, when it was inadequate for the task, I drove to the County Law Library in downtown Los Angeles to adequately research legal questions . Research in a large library took days to find support for an issue. I needed three professional legal secretaries to keep up with my dictation. Now, using modern technology, I can do the same legal research in 30 minutes on Fastcase.com, need no secretary, and can operate my consulting, writing, training and publishing businesses with no employees. In 1979 I decided it was time to be my own boss. I started a law firm called Barry Zalma, Inc. with a secretary who came from my last firm and brought an IBM Selectric typewriter with her into a small windowless office. I had obtained a line of credit from a bank that I hoped would carry us until the practice started since the only case I was sure of when I moved into my new office, was my sister’s rear-ender from which I could not, and did not, take a fee. The office was furnished with a file cabinet from my father-in-law’s dental practice and a dining room table from my wife’s grandmother who had passed away. I received my first call at 8:10 a.m. on the first day, October 1, 1979, from Alan Worboys, a claims person speaking for Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London and my practice began. Alan became, and still is, a long time friend. I had nothing to do on October 3, 1979 so I wrote an article for publication. After that, I had no peace and the firm quickly grew to 9 lawyers and a staff to serve them all defending people who were insured and acting as coverage counsel for insurers who needed advice and counsel concerning interpretation of insurance contracts and how to deal with attempted fraud. I, and the lawyers who joined the firm also provided defense to insureds of our clients and defense of suits against the insurers for tort, including the tort of bad faith. I was more successful than I ever expected. I, whose experience was limited to Los Angeles County and Central Illinois, found a need to travel to Taipei, Taiwan and London, England on behalf of my clients. I worked, as I had learned from my father who survived the Depression, 16 hours a day, six or seven days a week. When I became 75 years old my firm had been reduced back to a sole practice and I decided it was time to stop practicing law and become a consultant and fulfill my childhood dream to be an author. I am a very lucky and happy man. I do work that I love. I fulfilled my childhood dreams. I Live in a home I have owned for more than 49 years that my wife and I adapted and increased as children were born to meet our needs. I have the love of my life with me and look forward to celebrating our 57th wedding anniversary next month. I am honored that my eldest daughter has come back to live with us and care for my wife and I who are not able to do everything we used to do. I have three wonderful children, two grandchildren and all live close. My son, and his business shares my office building and has time to visit with me as allowed by his busy schedule. (c) 2024 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this blog and the videos and let them subscribe to the blog and the videos. Subscribe to my substack at https://barryzalma.substack.com/subscribe Go to X @bzalma; Go to Newsbreak.com https://www.newsbreak.com/@c/1653419?s=01; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://lnkd.in/gwEYk This is a long article so go to https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-am-thankful-barry-zalma-esq-cfe-bzysc, to read the full article.

When Rejected in Writing no UM/UIM Coverage Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gwt49KRg, see the full video at https://lnkd.in/ggwkMJ_U and at https://lnkd.in/gbFpkHtK and https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4900 posts. When Rejected in Writing no UM/UIM Coverage Post 4939 Karina Monasterio appealed the district court’s judgment in favor of Progressive Express Insurance Company on Progressive’s complaint for declaratory judgment and Monasterio’s counterclaim against Progressive, and in favor of Rasier-DC, LLC and Uber Technologies, Inc. on her crossclaim against those defendants. In Progressive Express Insurance Company v. Karina Monasterio, Uber Technologies, Inc., Rasier – DC, LLC, No. 24-11256, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (November 18, 2024) the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the USDC. FACTS Progressive sued for declaratory judgment. Monasterio counterclaimed seeking a declaration that Florida’s TNC Act required Progressive, Rasier-DC, and Uber to provide uninsured motorist coverage for her accident. Florida’s TNC Act required insurance coverage may be maintained by the TNC, the TNC driver, or the TNC vehicle owner, or it may be provided by a combination of their policies. FLORIDA UM/UIM COVERAGE REQUIREMENTS Florida Statutes provide that no motor vehicle liability insurance policy which provides bodily injury liability coverage shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state with respect to any “specifically insured or identified motor vehicle” registered or principally garaged in this state unless uninsured motor vehicle coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto. Neither Rasier-DC nor any other named insured paid the premium for uninsured motorist coverage. THE APPEAL The Eleventh Circuit concluded that the statutory text is clear. The policy was not issued for any “specifically insured or identified motor vehicle” registered or garaged in Florida. So, the requirements of the statute did not apply. Because statute did not require uninsured motorist coverage for the auto insurance policy the TNC Act did not. ZALMA OPINION It is always important for a court to read the language of the applicable statute and the policy to determine coverage on an automobile insurance policy. Here the TNC, Raiser-DC rejected UM/UIM coverage and coverage was clearly not required by the statute. The only question I have is why the parties thought it was worth their time and effort to appeal to the Eleventh Circuit. (c) 2024 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this blog and the videos and let them subscribe to the blog and the videos. Subscribe to my substack at https://lnkd.in/gmmzUVBy Go to X @bzalma; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://lnkd.in/gwEYk

Now on. There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI inside the movies and TV shows. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/11/opensubtitles-ai-data-set/680650/