Register to Attend - All Industry Day - 10/21/2015

This year's continuing education program will cover Landslides and Retaining Walls, brought to you by Dr. Daniel Pradel, Vice President of Shannon & Wilson, Inc.  Dr. Pradel is an Adjunct Associate Professor for UCLA's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.  He is also a licensed engineer and is certified with the California Emergency Management Agency as a Post- Disaster Safety Assessment Program Evaluator.  

Dr. Padrel's two hour CE course will benefit adjusters and insurance brokers alike.  When a landslide affects multiple properties, the involvement of neighboring homeowners often results in third party insurance claims for which the determination of causation can be complex. This presentation will help insurance brokers and adjusters to better understand the technical aspects and failure mechanisms that engineers consider in assessing causation, relative contributions (when several causes have created the retaining wall distress or failure), and the "reasonable care" concept which has been used to assess liability in many litigations.

The aim of this continuing education course is to:

• Help insurance professionals understand the technical elements that engineers consider in assessing causation and relative contributions, as well as the “reasonable care” concept which has been used to assess liability
• Allow adjusters to ask better questions to engineers and improve their competence when adjusting landslide third party claims.
• Allow brokers to have a better understanding of potential risks and what to look for when performing a site inspection.
  
• Learn how California case law (Garvey vs. State Farm and Sprecher v. Adamson) can result in coverage of earth movement and groundwater seepage under either first party or third party claims.
• Understand the effect of a homeowner's improvements and/or maintenance (e.g., modification of drainage, adding a load at the top) on the stability of a retaining wall, and the resulting effects on personal liability coverage.
•  Learn about typical causes of moisture intrusion through retaining walls and water damages in basements (e.g., sudden pipe breaks or inadequate drainage), and how engineers determine the sources and causes of the water intrusion.