With the advance of technology and a little advance notice, you can watch your Florida Legislature at work, commercial free via live streaming on your computer or mobile device. Folks, unless you want to testify at a committee meeting you can forget the long drive or airplane flight to Florida’s hither land aka Tallahassee, Florida. All you need is the committee meeting schedule and click the link to watch your favored or disfavored proposed legislation being debated or voted on. Of course this also comes with the ability to hear your elected officials ask questions and comment on the topic being addressed. Believe me, this is at times interesting stuff.

First a little background, an umpire in the insurance property world has nothing to do with baseball except that a baseball umpire and an umpire in a property insurance dispute have one thing in common--both have to make a decision. The baseball umpire will have to make a decision quickly, where as an umpire in the appraisal dispute resolution forum should take as much time as needed to make a decision based on all the facts. A good umpire will thoroughly review of all the materials provided to him or her by the two appraisers (representing each side of the dispute) who agreed to his or her appointment. This can and often should include a visit to the loss site (if the property in question is still standing) along with the two appraisers and the policyholder if they want to understand the opinions as to why the initial adjustment was wrong.