Houston, TX [July 16, 2010] The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association announced today it would pay out an estimated $189 million to the approximately 2,400 policyholders whose homes were completely razed by Hurricane Ike nearly two years ago.

“I am happy that the matter is resolving,” said managing attorney Chip Merlin of Merlin Law Group. “Judge Susan J. Criss did a wonderful job and should be congratulated for her efforts.”
Details of the settlement include 37 percent of the home's replacement value, minus any previous payments, coverage of attorneys’ fees, 25% of the value of home content and an additional 35% for living expense coverage for those who had to relocate.

“There are still many more cases where policyholders have still not been fully paid,” continued Merlin. “By no means is this story over and, in fact, I would say we have just reached in the top of the sixth inning.”

Merlin Law group has successfully represented hundreds of policyholders in multiple states for several hurricanes where the same exact question arises—‘Is it wind or water that caused the damage?’

It has become all to common to see vast areas of destruction knowing that claims will be denied because the insurance industry would rather do battle with customers before paying a fair sum towards recovery.

“As a society, we need to come up with a better resolution rather than requiring massive litigation to occur after each hurricane with a significant storm surge, said Merlin. “Until then, we are doomed to repeat this scenario, over and over."