... AND IN THIS POST: FLORIDA STANDARD JURY INSTRUCTIONS IN BAD FAITH FAILURE TO SETTLE CASES.
The Florida Standard Jury Instructions provide in basic and simple terms that for every claim of Bad Faith Failure to Settle in every Florida case, the measure of liability to be used by Judges and Juries is whether the Insurance Company could have and should have settled the underlying claim under all the circumstances, had it acted in Good Faith.
A recent example of 'could have and should have settled' which was resolved in the Insurer's favor, resulting in a Summary Judgment and Dismissal of all Bad Faith Claims, came in Losat v. GEICO Casualty Co., 2011 WL 5834689 (M.D. Fla. November 21, 2011), Download Losat v. GEICO Casualty Co. (M.D. Fla. Case No. 8.10cv1564, Order Filed Nov. 21, 2011) PUBLIC ACCESS.
The lesson to be learned is a simple one, but hard to practice sometimes: The facts will determine the outcome of Florida Bad Faith Claims. For that reason, if for no other reason, in Florida the best defense to Bad Faith Claims is ordinarily to put on evidence of all the facts whenever the facts will demonstrate that the Insurance Company could not have or should not have settled under all the circumstances, because that course of conduct was Good Faith and Fair Dealing, on the merits.
The day of this post, Thursday, December 1, 2011, is the second day of the American Conference Institute's 2011 Advanced National Forum on Bad Faith Litigation. I will be presenting on two panels today. I look forward to seeing you too in Orlando!
Please Read The Disclaimer.
Comments