Lawsuit - personal injury claim on felling on common area

[Yannes Chiang]

Hi everyone,

In need of some help/advise. I got a letter from a law firm from FL asking me to provide the insurance policies details pursuant to FL Statute 627.4137. The claimant/plaintiff E claimed she fell on the common area while helping her father moving out. I asked for proof of her injury and they said she is not permitted to share that with me. 

The background story is the tenant R (her father) is the only resident according to the lease. But her daughter E moved in with him without our permission. We had given them warning that she needed to move out but she claimed she was just visiting. All neighbors (it is 4plex) told us she and her kids were living there for long time. And in January there was a policy call that there were a flight inside the unit. We have decided not to renew the lease and given them notice to move out by 3/5/2019. His lease expires on 2/28/2019. Their rent is actually 30% lower than the market rent. I thought I was being nice to offer them extra days to move out but obvious they were mad at us at not renewing the lease with them. 

Then this week I got a letter from the tenant's daughter R's law firm claiming on 3/3/2019 there was an accident. I have done some research on the law firm, contingent fee basis (only get fees when wins, no cost upfront), have 6 branches in various cities in FL. 

I have transferred the title of the property to LLC in February but forgot to send this updates to the insurance company. So my current insurance policy is under my name instead of the LLC's name when the letter was received. The insurance holders' name has been updated as the LLC name as of today.

My questions are

1. what are the purpose of getting those insurance polices? I guess they are trying  to file a claim and see how much they can get? Since they are on continent fee basis, how to know whether they will proceed or drop the case?

2. Does it matter since the insurance title is under personal name not a LLC when the law letter was issued?

3. Do I need to hire a lawyer? 

4. Any chances to flight the case? How to verify whether the claimant's words are true? 

5. What can I do as a landlord to prevent this happening again?

Thank you in advance for sharing your valuable thoughts!

[Jim Cummings]

@Yannes Chiang. Suggest your next action would be to talk to your Insurance Agent / Company. They will be best equipped to deal with this, and advise you of what and what not to do.

Good luck - sounds like the slip and fall scam starting up!