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Terri Sutton and Jordan Hess discuss the state Supreme Court decision in Keodalah v. Allstate Insurance Company, et al.
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Extracontractual claims pose a unique set of risks to insurers, implicating their business operations and opening potentially vast exposures. Today, it is not enough to have good coverage counsel. Insurers need counsel with deep and specific bad faith and extracontractual experience. Cozen O’Connor’s team of dedicated extracontractual/bad faith attorneys have been practicing in this field for decades.
Our bad faith attorneys defend insurance clients in litigation alleging first- or third-party extracontractual claims related to all lines of business, including property, general liability, professional liability and D&O, life/health/disability and automobile policies. We handle litigation arising from claims handling, underwriting, excess verdicts, uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage, consent judgments, default judgments and garnishment actions. Our attorneys have successfully defeated individual and class claims seeking actual and consequential damages, statutory penalties, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and policy benefits.
Because Cozen O’Connor is a global leader in the area of insurance coverage and claims litigation, we are often able to defeat breach of contract assertions at the outset, thereby mitigating any extracontractual claims. When appropriate, our attorneys are able to negotiate quick and quiet resolutions to bad faith claims. Because they involve questions of honor, duty and essential fairness, these cases are qualitatively different from other coverage disputes. Our lawyers are able to create practical frameworks for discussion, incentivize reasonable conduct and mutuality, and find solutions that limit insurer exposure.
When bad faith and extracontractual disputes must be tried, our attorneys have the proven ability to go to court—and win. We regularly and successfully defend major insurers in multi-million dollar bad faith matters in state, federal and appellate courts throughout the United States. Success is not defined simply by getting a defense verdict, but by winning in way that protects clients’ bottom lines and brands.
SERVICE AREAS
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Successfully defend bad faith litigation from inception through trial
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Design strategies to defeat institutional bad faith cases
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Respond to policy limit and time limit demands and analyze potential exposures
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Assist in the withdrawal of a defense while avoiding bad faith, waiver and estoppel claims
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Respond to unreasonable discovery requests and consent judgments
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Bifurcate bad faith claims for discovery and trial, when necessary
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Avoid or limit impact of policyholder’s assignment of rights
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Negotiate settlements in bad faith cases with multiple insureds/claimants, multiple insurers, limited insurance; avoid or defend against collusive settlements
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Monitor underlying litigation and assess impact on coverage issues and potential exposure
May 03, 2022
In its recent decision, People ex rel. Ellinger v. Magill, et al., ---Cal.Rptr.3d---, No. E076378, 2022 WL 1077988 (Cal. Ct. App., Mar. 18, 2022), the California Court of Appeal refused to extend liability under California’s Insurance Frauds Prevention Act (IFPA) to an insurer’s claims handling...
April 29, 2022
A recent Supreme Court decision, High Country Paving, Inc. v. United Fire & Cas. Co., 2022 MT 72, ¶ 1, answered in the negative a question certified by a federal district court regarding tensions inherent in Montana’s Property and Casualty Insurance Policy Simplification Act (“PSA”). The...
March 23, 2022
Teri Mae Rutledge discusses the Colorado Supreme Court's decision in Skillet v. Allstate.
March 01, 2022
On February 15, 2022, the United States Court of Appeal for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the Southern District of Florida’s summary judgment victory for GEICO, finding that no reasonable jury could conclude that GEICO had operated in bad faith with respect to its handling of a wrongful death claim...
January 26, 2022
On January 19, 2022, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed S.B. 1559, known as the “New Jersey Insurance Fair Conduct Act,” which allows motorists to sue their insurance companies over “unreasonably” late or denied coverage benefits and unfair settlement practices. The bill, passing through both...
August 20, 2021
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 extracontractual liability to the insured. See, e.g., Garcia v. State Farm Lloyds, 514...
July 23, 2021
Using general contract interpretation principles, the Fifth Circuit reversed summary judgment in favor of an insurer and found a duty to defend Landry’s in a data breach lawsuit. Landry’s Inc. v. The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, No. 19-20430 (July 21, 2021). Landry’s...
June 08, 2021
The Iowa Supreme Court recently
reversed the appellate court’s denial of an insurer’s motion for a directed
verdict, finding that United Fire did not breach the insurance policy and did
not commit bad faith during a property appraisal. Luigi’s, Inc. v. United Fire and Cas. Co., No. 19-1669, ---...
May 28, 2021
An insurer can no longer claim its lack of notice of a lawsuit against its insured excuses it for failing to settle the suit after the Georgia Supreme Court’s recent decision in GEICO Indemnity Co. v. Whiteside, Case No. S21Q0227 (Ga. April 19, 2021). In Whiteside, the Georgia Supreme Court held...
May 19, 2021
Waiver, estoppel and forfeiture are
doctrines on which insureds often rely to try to create coverage outside the terms of the insurance
policy. Insureds will often assert that they are entitled to such
extra-contractual coverage based entirely
on how the insurer handled the claim. But
under...
April 27, 2021
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 finding. Pinto v. Farmers Ins. Exch., No. B295742,
__ Cal. App. 5th __, 2021 WL...
April 21, 2021
Illinois does not recognize bad
faith as an independent tort. In the first-party context, bad faith is a purely
statutory construct which hinges upon whether an insurer’s conduct was
“vexatious and unreasonable.” Section 155 of the Illinois Insurance Code (215
ILCS 5/155) provides the exclusive...
April 19, 2021
In two recent cases, the courts
showed substantial deference to patients’ treating physicians in determining
the reasonableness of medical treatment. This deference appears to reflect a
reluctance of courts to decide what healthcare is appropriate for a patient.
In Peterson v. Western National...
April 12, 2021
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 investigation is sufficient to
support a coverage determination and...
April 01, 2021
Mark A. Talise discusses the California Supreme Court decision in Villanueva v. Fidelity National Title Company and how it could impact all insurance providers in California.
March 29, 2021
Michael Melendez and Rebekah Shapiro discuss a recent California Appeals Court decision in Planet Bingo LLC v. Burlington Ins. Co., and what it means for liability insurers.
May 06, 2020
In Texas, and as a general rule, only the four corners of the policy and the four corners of the petition against the insured are relevant in deciding whether the duty to defend applies. Richards v. State Farm Lloyds, ___S.W.3d ___, 2020 WL 1313782 at *1 (Tex. 2020). Texas courts and practitioners...
April 22, 2020
Karl A. Schulz and Stephen P. Pate discuss three recent cases decided by the Texas Suprme Court that revived policyholder suits that were in limbo when Barbara Technologies and Ortiz were decided.
October 08, 2019
Terri Sutton and Jordan Hess discuss the state Supreme Court decision in Keodalah v. Allstate Insurance Company, et al.
July 17, 2019
Donnie M. Apodaca, II, Stephen Pate, and Alicia G. Curran discuss two recent the Supreme Court of Texas’s decisions and considerations for insurers before they invoke appraisal and pay the appraisal awards.
May 10, 2019
Peter Berg discusses the decision in Draggin' Y Cattle Co., Inc. v. Junkermier, Clark, Campanella, Stevens, P.C. and how it impacts settlements in Montana.
February 05, 2019
Kristie M. Abel discusses how Abbey/Land demonstrates that an insurer can successfully contest such a judgment, however, the insurer needs to meet a high burden in order to prevail.
February 01, 2019
Laura Dowgin discusses the decision in D.K. Prop., Inc. v. Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, PA and notes that while it resulted in a favorable outcome for the policyholder there has been no shift in New York bad faith law.
April 20, 2018
Greg Hudson discusses the Texas Supreme Court's decision in Menchaca v. USAA Texas Lloyds Company. The court articulates five rules when extracontractual causes of action are available even when there has been no breach of the insurance policy and clarifies the procedural steps a court should follow in determining which rule applies.
April 03, 2018
Michael D. Handler and Jordan A. Hess discuss the Washington Court of Appeals reversal of a trial court’s dismissal of the bad faith claim against a claims adjuster, holding that individual insurance adjusters could be liable for violating the CPA if they caused financial injury by engaging in unfair or deceptive acts or practices that impact the public interest.
June 29, 2017
Jonathan Toren discusses a recent Washington Court of Appeals decision on three important issues for insurers relating to bad faith actions.
Upcoming Events
July 25, 2022 - Seattle, Washington
Alycen A. Moss will present “Creating Balance in the Bad Faith Discovery Wars: Do Insurers Have a Right to Discover Plaintiffs’ Privileged Information?” at the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel 2022 Annual meeting in Seattle, Washington.
June 09, 2022 - Webinar
Eric D. Freed will present the webinar, “Cooperation Between Insurers and Law Enforcement in Arson Investigations – A Case Study” to the International Association of Arson Investigators.
Past Events
March 23, 2022 - Palm Desert, CA
January 26, 2022 - Webinar
December 02, 2021 - New York, NY
September 24, 2021 - Lake Buena Vista, FL
September 08, 2021 - Baltimore, MD
August 12, 2021 - Atlanta, Georgia
February 13, 2019 - WEBINAR
October 24, 2018 - Webinar
August 15, 2018 - Webinar
June 28, 2018 - San Antonio, TX
February 07, 2018 - Webinar
September 18, 2017 - London
September 07, 2017
Cozen O’Connor is proud to announce the promotion of six members to shareholders of the firm: David Brisco (San Diego), Michael de Leeuw (New York), John Dickenson (West Palm Beach), Jonathan Lichtenstein (Philadelphia), William Walsh (Seattle), and Ingrid Welch (Philadelphia).