After deliberating for less than two hours, a Florida jury reportedly returned a verdict of bad faith against GEICO for failure to settle a claim against its policyholder. See Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post Online, Friday, October 30, 2015.
The newspaper report says that GEICO refused to allow the injured claimant's attorney to "interview" the policyholder to confirm that he did not have any assets beyond the $100,000 policy limit of his GEICO policy. The article does not say so, but injured claimants' attorneys generally want to pin down that the likely defendant has no assets beyond her or his liability insurance policy limits, before the attorneys will recommend that their clients accept an offer of policy limits before suit is filed.
The plaintiff's attorney basically told the reporter that that decision left no alternative but to sue GEICO's policyholder at that point. It also led to bad faith claims, obviously. The jury in the bad faith case found that GEICO is responsible for damages of $8.5 Million, which with accumulating interest as of the time of the report amounts to $9.6 Million. See Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post Online, Friday, October 30, 2015.
The headline on this newspaper report says "Jury: Due to 'Bad Faith,' GEICO Owes $8.6 Million on $100K Policy," which seems to confuse the amount of the jury's bad faith verdict, $8.5 Million, with the amount of that verdict combined with continually accumulating interest which through the date of the newspaper report apparently resulted in a new total of $9.6 Million. Moreover, the reporter says that GEICO's attorney did not return her telephone call. We may have to wait for a judicial opinion to find out what went on in this matter.
Or maybe we do not.
Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2015 by Dennis J. Wall, author of Litigation and Prevention of Insurer Bad Faith (3d ed. Thomson Reuters West in 2 Volumes, with 2015 Supplements). All rights reserved.
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