Law360, New York (January 9, 2015, 10:40 AM EST) -- Any insurance lawyer practicing in Texas knows that in order to show an insurance company has breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing to its insured, the insured must show "there is no reasonable basis for denial of a claim or delay in payment or a failure on the part of the insurer to determine whether there is any reasonable basis for the denial or delay."[1] Most bad faith cases turn on this first issue, whether the insurer had a reasonable basis to deny the claim, rather than the second, whether the insurer failed to determine if there was a reasonable basis for the denial of the claim; in other words, it failed to investigate. However, as a recent decision from the Fifth Circuit makes clear, an insurer who reasonably believes it has a basis to deny coverage must still conduct a reasonable investigation or it may find itself defending bad faith claims....