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The settlement authority held by the Insurance Company Representative at a Mediation is a major issue. It has been a huge issue for a long time, judging by the content and comments at my Insurance Law Committee Seminar of Thursday, February 4, and the Mediation Seminars I attended this past Friday and Saturday at the Midyear Meeting of the American Bar Association in Orlando.
Florida has addressed this issue with Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.720(b), entitled "Sanctions for Failure to Appear". (The link provided here is to the Florida Supreme Court's online publication of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 1.720 is found on page 111 of this pdf document, numbered as page "CIV-79.") Under the Florida Rule, a party fails to appear for Mediation, and is thereby subject to sanctions under the Rule:
If a party fails to appear at a duly noticed mediation conference without good cause, the court upon motion shall impose sanctions, including an award of mediator and attorneys' fees and other costs, against the party failing to appear.... Otherwise, unless stipulated by the parties or changed by order of the court, a party is deemed to appear at a mediation conference if the following persons are physically present:
(1) The party or its representative having full authority to settle without further consultation.
(2) The party's counsel of record, if any.
(3) A representative of the insurance carrier for any insured party who is not such carrier's outside counsel and who has full authority to settle up to the amount of the plaintiff's last demand or policy limits, whichever is less, without further consultation.
Even with a requirement of 'physical presence' and "full authority to settle up to the amount of the plaintiff's last demand or policy limits, whichever is less," the parties to a Mediation in Florida can still stipulate otherwise. In my experience both as a Certified Mediator and as Counsel (including as Coverage Counsel and as "Bad Faith Counsel") at Mediations, very often the Insurance Company representative is allowed by agreement to attend by telephone or with less than "full authority" so long as "full authority" is available from someone at or reasonably close to the time of the Mediation. The injured claimant and her, his or its attorneys may want to settle the case, after all -- and in order to settle it then or in the future, it is most likely the insured defendant's Insurance Company that they will be asking to put money into a settlement.
Please Read The Disclaimer.
This is a good post on this topic.
Regards
Posted by: flash games | July 10, 2012 at 07:55 PM