Dispelling The Myth Of Insurers' Bad Faith

Law360 (April 20, 2018, 4:13 PM EDT) -- Some policyholder counsel have a simple test for whether an insurer committed "bad faith": anything done by the insurer short of exactly what he or she demanded. The policyholder lawyers in this camp would be well-served to read a state's actual definition of bad faith. Any state will do. If so, they would see that, in real life, proving that an insurer acted in bad faith, especially when it comes to a claims decision, is a pretty tall order. Bad faith in this context generally requires some pretty egregious conduct on the insurer's part, such as acting knowingly, with reckless disregard, without reasonable justification or the like. But even if this ilk of policyholder lawyers saw this they probably still wouldn't change their tactic....

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