Tips for Filling Out Commerical Water Damage Claims

People passing by floody street 

Photo by jonathan Ford on Unsplash

Respected litigator Anastacio ‘Trae’ Mindiola founded the Mindiola Law Firm in 2011. As an attorney at law, Anastacio Mindiola handles disputes involving denied or undervalued insurance claims for water damage to commercial properties. 

Business owners take out water damage policies to protect themselves against costly repairs and income loss. Even after years of making faithful premium payments, business owners can still be denied claims. In addition to working with a qualified insurance claims attorney, policyholders should consider the following precautions. 

Mitigate Damage - Once the source of the water damage has been identified, business owners must take all necessary steps to prevent the damage from spreading. However, owners must strike a balance between preventing further damage and incurring repair costs that may or may not be reimbursed. 

Document the Damage - It is crucial to collect as much evidence as possible to substantiate the claim. Policyholders should refrain from throwing out water-logged items and take photos and videos of the damaged area. 

Hire Professionals - Filing a claim and repairing water damage requires the input of several professionals, including plumbers, restoration specialists, and public adjusters. While some insurance companies may encourage policyholders to use their vendors, business owners are better off contracting with independent professionals.

Filing a Grievance with the State Bar of Texas

Anastacio Trae Mindiola is a graduate of the South Texas College of Law and a member of the State Bar of Texas. For the last eight years, Anastacio Mindiola has managed his Houston practice while overseeing several unique civil lawsuits.

Any individual who has had a negative experience with an attorney affiliated with the State Bar of Texas can visit www.texasbar.com and begin filing an official grievance. With a few exceptions, grievances must be filed within four years of the incident in question. A person does not need to have been a client of an attorney at any point to file a grievance. Rather, any individual with knowledge of unethical behavior is encouraged to elevate standards of the state’s legal service by filing a complaint.

Grievances can be filed online or by mail. All grievances are reviewed by the Chief Disciplinary Counsel and responded to within 30 days of filing. Following the classification stage, a complaint is either filed as an “inquiry,” and subsequently dismissed, or as a “complaint,” in which case the grievance is more thoroughly investigated over a series of additional stages. Inquiries can be appealed through the Board of Disciplinary Appeals (BODA) or by amending the initial complaint, though amendments must contain new, pertinent information.

The Three Main Types of Product Defects

For more than seven years, Anastacio Mindiola has been working as an attorney at his own practice in Houston, Texas. Anastacio “Trae” Mindiola represents clients involved in civil cases such as mass torts, insurance claims, and product liability claims.

In product liability claims, design defects, manufacturing defects, or marketing defects may be deemed liable by courts for injuries. A design defect is a mistake in a product's design that makes the product inherently dangerous. For example, top-heavy cars that have a high risk of tipping over are defectively designed. 

All products with design defects are dangerous to consumers even if the products are perfectly made by the manufacturers. In the event of a design defect, the engineers and designers are generally held liable for resulting injuries.

Products that are designed safely but manufactured incorrectly are said to have a manufacturing defect. Manufacturing defects, which are introduced when the product is being made, do not apply to an entire product line. 

To make a manufacturing injury claim, the injury must be caused by a manufacturing defect that made the product reasonably unsafe. Product manufacturers are liable for manufacturing defects.

Marketing defects apply to incorrectly labeled products. This includes problems with the instructions and with product warnings written to protect consumers from a possibly unsafe aspect of the product. Distributors, manufacturers, and retailers may be held liable for marketing defects since they all are responsible for the proper labeling of products.

A Brief Biography of Attorney and Federal Judge James DeAnda

Attorney Anastacio (Trae) Mindiola represents clients in civil matters through his Houston law firm. A graduate of the South Texas College of Law, Anastacio Mindiola garnered numerous honors while pursuing his JD, including the Judge James DeAnda Houston Hispanic Bar Association Scholarship.

Born in Houston in 1925, James DeAnda enjoyed a distinguished law career that saw him advance the civil rights of Hispanic people, and later accept a seat on the federal bench. 

To many, he is best known for his work as a young Houston lawyer in the 1950s. During this time, Mr. DeAnda played a leading role in Hernandez v. Texas, a case in which the Supreme Court unanimously ruled Hispanic people have the same constitutional protections under the 14th Amendment as other racial groups.

Mr. DeAnda subsequently served as lead counsel in another landmark case affecting the civil rights of Hispanic people. Decided in 1957, Hernandez v. Driscoll Independent School District culminated in a federal court ordering that the district, which comprised so-called Mexican schools, desegregate.

Continuing his advocacy for Hispanic people into the 1960s, Mr. DeAnda assisted in the formation of the Texas Rural Legal Assistance Organization and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. In 1979, he accepted an appointment from President Jimmy Carter to serve as a judge for the Southern District of Texas. Mr. DeAnda became chief judge of the district court in 1988, maintaining this post until his 1992 retirement.

James DeAnda returned to private practice in Houston following the end of his tenure as a judge. A longtime resident of the city, he continued to call Houston home until his death in 2006.