THIRD-PARTY BAD FAITH AS A DEFENDANT

If you caused the damage in a collision, and you caused so much damage that the damage is valued in excess of your policy, you are underinsured for that event.  If the attorney or person who is making the claim has made a demand for your policy limit and your insurance carrier did not pay it, or did not offer the policy limit in a timely basis even without bring requested, your insurance carrier may be in bad faith to you.  The law says if a reasonable adjuster should have made a policy limit offer and did not, and thereafter a judgment is rendered against you, which requires your personal contribution, you may have a claim against your insurance carrier for bad faith.

THIRD-PARTY BAD FAITH AS A VICTIM

If you were involved in a collision, were hurt, made a claim against the wrongdoer’s carrier for the wrongdoer’s policy limit and your injuries far exceed the amount of insurance coverage the wrongdoer has, you can commence a claim and finish the claim against the wrongdoer getting a judgment in excess of the policy limit and receive an assignment by the wrongdoer to you for the wrongdoer’s bad faith claim against its own insurance carrier for not paying the policy limit.  That is also called third-party bad faith.

OUR FIRM’S INVOLVEMENT

Our firm was involved in the first verdict in the State of Ohio where a jury returned a verdict against an insurance carrier for third-party bad faith in a claim that Scott Stewart handled where a demand for policy limits were made for a devastatingly injured client that had a $50,000.00 policy limit.  That demand was not met with an offer of limits even though the demand was specific that if it was not met within a certain time, the wrongdoer would be forever exposed to a judgment of the full value of the claim which was well in excess of the policy limit.  There was a limited time frame when the carrier could offer the policy limit once that time passed, the time to settle for the policy limited ended.

The jury then awarded the total amount of the judgment against the wrongdoer for the insurance company’s bad faith.  Many bad faith claims have been handled by the firm.  We have handled bad faith claims in every possible area of failure.  We are currently handling a case for failure to provide a defense that cost a corporate client millions.  We have handled bad faith claims in uninsured or underinsured motorist situations; others for failure for the insurance company to offer the policy limit in a reasonable time frame; and others for failure to provide coverage.  In other words, in as many areas that an insurance company can be in bad faith, this firm has handled claims.