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JD  You are so correct.  I was just today talking with a friend in NC, both of us have over 40 yrs experience, but carriers do not want us. They want to young kid who is geek smart and fast.  I worked in an office for two weeks to close open claims. I was by far the oldest person there. The manager was under 35; most of her staff under 30 with no field experience, yet they were reviewing and ripping seasoned IA's.  Their moniker, if you do not understand the issue just deny it.  I had stacks of covered losses that were flat denied. If an insured was phone difficult the adjuster vanished. They hide behind voice mail and email.  They were stunned that I would not use voice mail and would actually talk to a angry insured, resolving their claim on the phone.  

All the certifications and class training in the world will not prepare you to deal with an insured whose home they cherished and worked for was just severely damaged by a Cat 5.   I have witnessed scores of difficult claims turned into nightmares by inept "adjusters" who convinced their vendor they could handle anything when in reality they just made that loss worse.  Now imagine that same adjuster has 50 of those nightmares. 

I would like to know hom many unsealed shingles on a slope, totals out the slope ? Who make this determination the roofing salesman, the maker of the estimationg program, some one in India, or the largest homeower writer in the USA or Hagge Eng. I meet roofers ever day and they think I am senile when I ask that question.

Also what is a fair price to reseal a shingle ? No one has a $ figure for this.... no one, please name one software program. Why it was not damage until Hurricane IKE, but I started working wind lift in January 2009 for a storm that hit on 9/13/08. When you ask the roofer if the shingle can be unsealed from any other cause other than hurricane Ike, the roofers can not answer.

Texas is in big trouble, if a few wind lifted shingles can total out a roof. I heard today that some of the roofers in this area are now up to $70.00 per square for off and haul away. Folks this 350% increase since the summer of 2008. How does the insurance carriers tolerate this.  I don,t think they care what hazard insurance cost as they do nothing to fight this practice. this is in some estimating programs for Harris, Ft Bend and Montgomery County.

All of you contractors tyrned adjusters should be able weigh in on this ... Please post your comments.

You have it right Jim, the carriers are always in the picture and so is the vendor. These two should have surerior knowledge and employees actions below this level can not be disclaimed in the good old English Vommon Law system that we use. It,s always tried, BUT most attorneys can win these cases on their first case in any US court house. You san not CONTRACT  away your tort liability. Its called master & servant.

We all do what we are told to do. If you wonder off the reservation the wolves will eat you. If you stay on the reservation under the desk, you may also be consumed; but the carrier or the vendor can not blame everthing on the dumb field adjuster, it just will not work and the money usaly come down from the top. The Texas adjusters who were named in the Texas lawsuits served the purpose, keep the suits in the court it was filed in, instead of federal court.,I don,t know  a nery few cat. adjusters who write their own letters to the insured. Most are some template letter and thats good. Just say it was a template letter just like the computer program you had to use and the price guide etc.

Most of the TX adjusters and TX vendors were non suited for 4 years from the date of the suit by the plaintiff attorney. No body wants to sue a poor working man who has a house car and little else.

I have never seen in my years a lawsuit for a first or third party claim; IF an insurance policy was not covering the Accident, occurance etc., and the jury does not know this... yea...........but it never gets to a jury... oop .15% does..I think.