Breaking Down Bad Faith: Insurers’ Good Faith Duties and Defending Bad Faith Claims
An Uncompromising Insurer: What is a Policyholder to Do?
Hinshaw Insurance Law TV: Recent Changes in Florida Property Insurance Law and How They Will Affect First Party Insurance
Podcast - The Briefing from the IP Law Blog: Lord of The Rings Author’s Estate Clings to its Precious Trademark, Blocking JRR Token
The Briefing from the IP Law Blog: Lord of The Rings Author’s Estate Clings to its Precious Trademark, Blocking JRR Token
Butler's Thursday Tips #7 | Civil Remedy Notices
Subro Sense Podcast - Considerations In Fixed Funds/Limited Pool Scenarios
Protecting Your Brand in China
The parent of an infant sued Kim Eichle for Eichle’s alleged negligence in serving alcohol to her houseguest, Jacob Russo, who allegedly assaulted the infant, and for negligence in failing to keep the sidewalk at her...more
In our January insurance update, we include three state cases addressing some less common situations. It’s not often that a pollution exclusion is interpreted in the context of an auto policy. But the South Dakota Supreme...more
In State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Tamagawa, Index No. 510977/2021, 2023 N.Y. Misc. Lexis 5434, the Supreme Court of New York considered whether an insurance carrier can settle its property subrogation lawsuit with the...more
First Department Affirms That Business Interruption From COVID-19 Not Covered- The insured purchased a commercial property policy that included business interruption coverage for its restaurants. The restaurants were...more
On June 28, 2019, a divided Supreme Court of Texas issued a pair of important opinions addressing how an insurer’s timely payment of an appraisal award impacts the viability of a policyholder’s contractual and...more
More than a year ago, we examined the agonizing history of Vanderhall, a single case spanning several years, marked by a panoply of fact twists, struggling to achieve a finding of bad faith. So tortuous was the history that...more
In Case v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., Inc. (No. B281732, filed 11/21/18, ord. pub. 12/18/18), a California appeals court held that the allowable reduction from uninsured motorist (UM) benefits for “payable”...more
Mitchell v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, No. 3:17cv00170-M, 2018 WL 4572664 (N.D. Miss. Sept. 24, 2018) - Lorine Mitchell submitted a claim to State Farm for damage to her property from a storm. Under the terms of...more
Becca Franco was involved in a car accident in 2015. Franco submitted a claim to her insurer, State Farm, for underinsured motor vehicle and medical payment benefits. Sixteen months later, Franco filed suit against State...more
After Melissa Parisi sustained injuries in a vehicle collision and learned that the other motorist involved in the crash carried only $15,000 in auto insurance, she submitted an underinsured motorist (UIM) claim to State...more
In Florida, an insured cannot bring a first-party bad faith claim based on a claim for UM coverage unless the insured first files a Civil Remedy Notice (CRN) with the Florida Department of Financial Services. In Mathurin v....more
Ortiz v. State Farm Lloyds, No. 04-17-00252-CV, 2017 WL 5162315 (Tex. Ct. App. Nov. 8, 2017). Oscar Ortiz submitted a claim to State Farm for damage to his property resulting from wind and a hailstorm. After inspecting the...more
In August 2011, Jeffrey Vanderhall was riding his bicycle when he was hit by a car and seriously injured. It is now six years, three courts and two bad faith attempts later... To describe the procedural history of this...more
In State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. Robert Charles Justus (Case No. 47913-3-II), the Washington Court of Appeals (Division II) ruled on three important issues for insurers relating to bad faith actions. The first issue...more
On Groundhog Day 2017, the Washington Supreme Court issued its first major opinion interpreting the state’s 2007 “Insurance Fair Conduct Act” (IFCA). The decade-old legislation had caused shockwaves among insurers when its...more
Every Texas building owner knows that shortly after a hail or wind storm the doorbell knockers will follow. These doorbell knockers are typically contractors or public adjusters, but may even now be attorneys (or their...more
Mississippi essentially has three levels of claim when insurance is at issue: (1) mere breach of contract, allowing recovery of contract damages; (2) breach of contract + no arguable basis for breach, which entitles recovery...more
Toney v. State Farm Lloyds, Case No. 14-40914, 2016 WL 4784012 (5th Cir. Sept. 13, 2016). After a March 2012 hail storm damaged his home in Mission, Texas, Kenneth Toney (“Toney”) filed a claim with State Farm Lloyds...more
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...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...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...more
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. The...more
In Paslay v. State Farm General Ins. Co. (No. B265348, filed 6/27/16), a California appeals court found triable issues of fact regarding whether State Farm breached its contract in paying a water loss, but affirmed summary...more
When discussing bad faith in the third party context, most of the discussion properly centers on the duty to settle a claim. However, other actions taken by a policyholder and carrier can have an impact. The recent case of...more
An issue that often arises in the context of property insurance is whether a carrier’s delay in adjusting a claim can create a basis for a viable bad faith claim. The law in each state is different and the prudent practice...more