Earlier this month, a Massachusetts Appellate Court affirmed a trial court’s award of bad faith damages in a case where it found the insurer’s approach to a claim to be “at best inattentive, if not incompetent.” Although the state appellate …
A low-ball settlement offer on its own is not enough to state a claim for a bad faith according to a federal district court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania which granted the insurer’s motion to dismiss the insured’s claim …
The recent California decision Barickman v. Mercury Casualty Company, 2016 WL 3975279, (Calif. App. – July 25, 2016), previously reported in Cozen’s bad faith blog on July 28, 2016, is worth revisiting on a bigger picture issue. Low policy limit …
POLICY LIMIT DEMANDS + QUIRKY LEGAL ISSUES = CALL LAWYER Read more »
On July 27, 2016, the United States District Court for South Carolina ordered an insurer to turn over its privileged communications. The Court explained that the insurer waived the protections afforded under the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine by …
In a recent unpublished decision, the California Court of Appeals upheld a $3 million judgment against an auto liability insurer that rejected proposed language in a settlement agreement, notwithstanding the insurer’s policy limits offer. Barickman v. Mercury Opinion, 2016 WL …
When a Policy Limits Offer is Not Enough: A Cautionary Tale of a Failure to Settle Case Read more »
Virtually all property insurance policies contain an appraisal clause, which outlines the appraisal procedure in broad terms. Those broad terms sometimes do not provide much guidance about the process, or about the effect which an appraisal award may have. A …
Don’t Mess with the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act: One Court’s Appraisal Result Read more »
It is highly unusual to find an insurance bad faith case which stems from an insurance company’s subrogation recovery. On July 6th, Wisconsin’s highest court had such a case, reversing the appellate court and holding that Dairyland Insurance Company’s subrogation …
The Paslays sued State Farm for failing to pay a portion of the damage caused to their Pacific Palisades house by a heavy rainstorm and for forcing them to move back into the house while it was still under construction. …
Genuine Dispute Defeats Both Bad Faith and Elder Abuse Read more »
This month, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued an opinion that reminds insurance carriers and their counsel that it is often beneficial to remove certain cases to federal court. While federal court offers many advantages in insurance litigation, the recent …
The Advantages of Removal: Twombly and Iqbal Applied to Bad Faith Claims Read more »
In many states, an insurer not only has a duty to timely communicate with its insured and respond to demands for settlement by a claimant asserting a claim regarding the adjustment of a loss, that duty may also include the …
The Duty to Follow-up Part II: When The Underlying Litigation Changes Read more »