It is not uncommon in today's property insurance policies to have an appraisal provision. Such a provision mandates that the insured and the insurance company engage in a non-judicial process to establish the value of the loss when there is disagreement. The process involves the selections of appraisers for both sides and the selection of an umpire. A decision agreed to by any two will set the amount loss.
Current law in this area makes appraisal awards enforceable. Court challenges are very limited. One such challenge is the Umpire exceeded his authority. Using experienced Umpires avoids the potential of a court recalculating the loss after a lengthy and expensive trial. SELA can provide experienced neutrals to serve as Umpires to work with appraisers selected by the disputants to resolve damage claims. The law in the Arbitration setting (which is similar to Appraisals) is developing and has started to examine 'fairness' issues as grounds to ignore the award. Fairness includes (1) fairness in the process of entering into the agreement, (2) fairness in the appraisal process, and (3) fairness of the outcome. There are several Arbitration protocols which exist in other areas that could result in similar fairness requirements for appraisals.
SELA' professionals include panelists with LLMs in Dispute Resolution from the highest ranked and most recognized universities in the USA when it comes to ADR–including The Straus Institute at Pepperdine Law. Let SELA protect your interests in handling this evolving area of dispute resolution.