John Hornbuckle

I moved here in 2005, and John was on the Commission then.  He soon became, or became again, Mayor.  John was a good Mayor, at least with respect to running meetings, which was all I could witness.   They were orderly, respectful, accomplished all the business each time, and lasted around two to 2 1/2 hours.  John waited patiently while his colleagues gave their opinions about things, at the end of which he gave his, and a vote was taken.

I met John's wife, Elizabeth, because we were both on Planning and Zoning, and I knew she was an architect.  I never really knew what John did professionally.

At some point, which could have been 2007 or 2009, John got "unelected" from the Commission (lost his re-election bid), and I didn't hear much from him any more.  But later, I'd see him around at various events, and he was advertising for himself.  He had a (new?) business called Compass Claims, the job of which was to represent people who had insurance claims, and they felt the insurance companies were not being fair in offering settlements.  I later came to realize this kind of advantage-taking by insurance companies is rampant.  And extreme.  So John had a job to do.  Specifically, you hire him to help you get your proper settlement, he does whatever he does to represent you and intervene, and his fee is 10% of what he gets you.

A year ago, one of my friends' house was damaged in hurricane Irma.  My friend had homeowners' insurance, and she immediately contacted the company to do something for her.  The damage made her house uninhabitable.  Her insurance company immediately started low-balling their settlement offer, was not providing any help with referrals to people who could solve the emergency problem, and they were jerking her around.  So I suggested my friend contact John, because I know him, and it's his line of work.  He quickly got involved, and he stayed with the project long (or short) enough to realize it wasn't going anywhere good.  So he referred my friend to an attorney with proper experience in this kind of problem.  With all of that, it took a long time for a proper settlement offer to get made, but it did.  It was approximately 14 times what the company wanted to pay.  And it is more than sufficient to address all the damage, and the dramatic life interruption that resulted from the unbelievable delays.  John has just delivered to my friend her check.  She's very happy.

I had no problem at all recommending John from the outset, because I know him, I like him, and I consider him hard-working and scrupulous.  Now, I can add that I have seen his work more or less first hand, and he is THE guy to call in this circumstance.

John is like me, in that it would be better if no one needed either of us professionally.  But if you have a problem with an insurance company, you want to contact John Hornbuckle.  John receives notices about posts to this blog, so I will leave it to him to provide his preferred contact information.  I'm sorry if you're ever in a situation where you need John's services, but you won't be sorry if you engage him when you do.