Expert Witnesses-Lawyers Testify On Insurance Issues.

In last month's Seminar at the Orange County Bar Association in Orlando, Florida, "Survey of Insurance Issues EVERYONE Should Know," one of my topics was an Overview and Recent Cases.  Two recent cases in particular, one Federal and one State, decided issues concerning the admissibility of Expert Testimony from Lawyers on Insurance topics and both were cases involving claims of Good Faith - Bad Faith.

 IN THIS NEW FEDERAL CASE, THE LAWYER-EXPERT WAS PROFERRED ON THE ISSUE OF LIABILITY POLICY LIMITS THAT WERE REDUCED AS ATTORNEY'S FEES AND COSTS WERE INCURRRED:  In Pueblo Country Club v. AXA Corporate Solutions Insurance Co., 2007 WL 951790 *5 (D. Colo. March 28, 2007), the Federal Court held that a jury is "entitled" to hear the testimony of a lawyer-Expert Witness presented by the policyholder that the insurance company defendant knew "that attorneys' fees and costs were reducing the available policy limits," even though the policyholder allegedly was exposed to a judgment in excess of the same policy limits which were being reduced by the insurance company's instructions to defense counsel that resulted in incurring the fees and costs.

STATES ALSO ALLOW EXPERT WITNESSES-LAWYERS TO TESTIFY ON INSURANCE ISSUES

Similarly, in Johnson v. Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Co., 205 S.W.3d 365, 371-72 (Tenn.  2006), an Attorney-Expert testified to opinions that the  insurance company "failed to adequately evaluate the case, that it should have settled the case, and that its failure to do so was in bad faith."

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