Public Adjuster Referral Intake Checklist
What to collect when work arrives from a public adjuster or an attorney, where these files differ from carrier assignments, and the intake gaps that cost the most later.
These files start later and arrive heavier
A carrier assignment usually reaches you early, with a thin file. A public adjuster or attorney referral usually reaches you after a dispute already exists, with a thick one: prior estimates, prior inspections, correspondence, and often a position that has already hardened on both sides.
Intake on these files is therefore mostly a collection problem. What you fail to collect now, you will request in the middle of the work, when it delays everything behind it.
Engagement
- Who is engaging you, and in what capacity
- The scope of the engagement, in writing
- Whether appraisal has been demanded, and by which party
- Whether litigation is filed or contemplated
- Conflict check completed and documented
- Fee basis and billing contact
Claim and policy
- Claim number, policy number, and carrier
- Named insured and property address
- Date of loss and reported cause
- Declarations page and endorsements
- Any coverage position the carrier has issued in writing
- Deadlines already running — suit limitation, proof of loss, appraisal appointment
The existing record
Ask for all of this at intake, in one request. A second request two weeks in is a two-week delay.
- Every prior estimate from every party, in native format where possible
- Prior inspection reports and the photographs behind them
- Engineer, industrial hygienist, or other expert reports
- Mitigation and repair invoices
- Correspondence between the insured and the carrier
- Any recorded statement or proof of loss already submitted
The property as it stands today
- Whether repairs have begun or been completed
- Whether the property is occupied
- Whether conditions have changed since the loss
- Whether any evidence has been discarded
- Who currently controls access
The disagreement itself
Ask the referring party to state the dispute explicitly at intake. It is often the first time anyone has written it down in one place.
- Which items are actually in dispute
- Whether the dispute is scope, quantity, price, or causation
- What has already been agreed
- What the referring party believes the file needs
Intake gaps that cost the most
- Missing endorsements — the scope question turns on one, and nobody has it
- Photographs referenced in a prior report that were never produced
- A deadline already running that nobody flagged at intake
- Repairs completed before inspection, with no pre-repair documentation
- An engagement scope broad enough that expectations diverge later