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
On June 5, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued an unpublished opinion that provides a blueprint to insurance companies for handling bad faith claims. The Fourth Circuit held in Sellman v....more
In an issue of first impression, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for Allstate and held that the two-year statute of limitations for bad faith claims arising out of an uninsured/underinsured...more
The duty of a liability insurer to defend a policyholder from litigation is typically described as broad and expansive, extending beyond the insurer’s duty to indemnify. The duty to defend generally obliges an insurer to...more
Just a few short years ago, there was a bright line rule under Texas law concerning appraisal awards. If an insurer timely paid an appraisal award, that payment extinguished all of the insurer’s contractual and...more
Brett McIsaac v. Foremost Insurance Company Grand Rapids, Michigan, A160389 (Sonoma County Super. Ct. No. SCV-265433) (Filed 4/30/21; certified for publication 5/19/21) - McIsaac had an auto insurance policy with Foremost...more
In Florida, an insurer is required to work diligently on the insured’s behalf to avoid an excess judgment, with the “same haste and precision as if it were in the insured’s shoes”. Harvey v. GEICO General Insurance Company,...more
On March 8, 2021 the California Court of Appeal, reversing a $10 million verdict against Farmers, found that a jury must specifically find unreasonable acts by an insurer to support a “failure to settle” bad faith...more
The key issue in insurance bad faith litigation is whether the claims professional reasonably handled the claim. Throughout the claims-handling process, the claims professional should constantly ask him-or-herself whether the...more
Pinto v. Farmers Ins. Exch., ___ Cal. App. 5th ___ (2021) - Over the past several years, the insurance industry in California has been plagued by waves of “bad faith failure to settle” claims. These claims arise out of a...more
A recent case from California, Barickman vs. Mercury Casualty, 2 Cal.App.5th 508 (2016) illustrates the perils that may arise when an insurance company, evidently playing hardball with its insured, refuses to deviate from its...more
This week, in AXIS Reinsurance Co. v. Northrop Grumman Corp., ____ F.3d ____, 2020 WL 5509743 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2020), the Ninth Circuit addressed an important question of first impression: When can an excess insurer...more
In Axis Reinsurance Co. v. Northrop Grumman Corporation, 2020 DJDAR 10114 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2020), a case of first impression under California law, the Ninth Circuit held that an excess insurer may not dispute exhaustion of...more
Insurance policies often contain “limitation-of-action” or suit limitation provisions, which contractually reduce the statute of limitations for an insured to assert a claim against an insurer. Depending on the state, such...more
WHILE THERE REMAINS NO BAD FAITH CAUSE OF ACTION IN NEW YORK, A RECENT APPELLATE DIVISION CASE OUT OF THE FIRST DEPARTMENT MAKES PLAIN THAT AN INSURED NEED NOT MEET A HEIGHTENED PLEADING STANDARD WITH RESPECT TO CONSEQUENTIAL...more
In Cawthorn v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co., No. 18-12067 (11th Cir. Oct. 25, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Auto-Owners...more
The California Court of Appeal recently disposed of a novel attack on bad faith law launched by Zurich American Insurance Company. In Miller Marital Deduction Trust, et al. v. Zurich American Insurance Company, 2019 DJDAR...more
An insurer defending a claim against an insured that could exceed policy limits has a good faith obligation to settle the claim if possible. Failure to do so puts a nonsettling insurer at grave risk. An Eleventh Circuit...more
Since 2008, Minnesota has had a bad-faith statute that penalizes an insurance company for its unreasonable denial of a first-party insurance claim. But it was only earlier this month that a Minnesota appellate court...more
It is said that the first rule of a successful appeal is to win in the trial court. But, regardless of winning or losing in the trial court, one of the most important considerations in evaluating exposure and the likelihood...more
The Holding - In Centeno v. American Liberty Ins. Co., 2019 WL 568926 (D. Ariz. Feb. 12, 2019) (Order), an insurance bad faith case arising from a workers’ compensation claim, the Arizona District Court granted a motion to...more
Should divided panels of federal appellate courts really be deciding state-law issues of first impression? That’s what happened last month in Lindenberg v. Jackson National Life Insurance Co. In Lindenberg, two Sixth Circuit...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently closed the book on litigation in which GEICO had been involved since 2010, holding that the granting of a retrial—which resulted in a GEICO victory after an initial...more
The Holding - In Doneson v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 2018 WL 4781382 (Ariz.App. Oct. 3, 2018), an insurance bad faith case, the Arizona Court of Appeals upheld an exclusion precluding MedPay benefits “if workers’ compensation...more
While the November 8, 2018 Court of Appeal of Texas, Fort Worth Division opinion reverses a trial court’s judgment on grounds of legal insufficiency and standing, the court’s analysis and application of current Texas bad...more
In a highly anticipated decision, the Pennsylvania Superior Court vacated an eyebrow-raising $21 million award for an auto policyholder and found that the insurer did not act in bad faith....more