Almost all jurisdictions have enacted one version or another of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Model Unfair Claim Settlement Practices Act. Florida's Unfair Claim Settlement Practices Act is contained in Fla. Stat. § 626.9541(1)(i) (2009).
Florida's Unfair Claim Settlement Practices Act is made actionable by Florida's so-called "Bad Faith Statute," Fla. Stat. § 624.155(1)(a)1 (2009).
In a recent First-Party Bad Faith case, a Florida intermediate Appellate Court observed: "Rather, we have in essence viewed bad faith claims as comparable to claims for unfair settlement practices." Download Citizens-Property-Insurance-Corporation-v.-Garfinkel-(Fla.-5th-DCA-Opinion-Filed-December-18-2009), at 11.
It is true that in Florida all statutory Unfair Settlement Practices claims are Bad Faith claims, but with respect, not all Bad Faith claims are based on statutory Unfair Settlement Practices. The Bad Faith Statute, Section 624.155, is broader than the Unfair Settlement Practices listed in Section 626.9541.
In addition, in Florida as in many jurisdictions, a Third-Party Bad Faith Claim is viewed as a contract claim for many purposes, and a claim of Third-Party Bad Faith in settlement is viewed as a breach of Fiduciary Duties.
Courts in the United States have for a long time been construing and applying statutory remedies in both Third-Party Bad Faith cases and in First-Party Bad Faith cases. More than 3,700 cases and statutes and other authorities are presented in Dennis J. Wall, "Litigation and Prevention of Insurer Bad Faith" (Second Edition Shepard's/McGraw-Hill; 2009 Supplement West Publishing Company), and §§ 3.25 (Settlement), 3.58 (Refusal to Defend), and 3.87 (Conduct of Defense) in particular address Statutory Causes of Action for Bad Faith in Third-Party Cases, while §§ 9.14 - 9.16 address Statutory Causes of Action for Bad Faith in First-Party Cases. The recent Florida decision linked above, is the latest manifestation of that continuing process in American Courts.
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