NEW JERSEY AND AMERICA SAY APPEALS "YES," PERFECTION "NOT REQUIRED."

A case in New Jersey illustrates three things about the application of generally accepted rules of law in the United States:

1. When a liability carrier is deciding whether or not the insured will be better off if the carrier pays for an appeal, there has already been an excess judgment. For that reason alone, applying the test of "good faith" is "'more exacting at the appeal stage of the proceedings than before or during trial.'"
2. On the facts of a given case, including this New Jersey case, the carrier can act in good faith by making a reasonable settlement offer -- in this case, a policy limits offer -- after an excess verdict even if its decision to appeal was not the best.
3. Perfection is not required. Or, as the New Jersey courts and most U.S. courts put it, a mistake is not bad faith.

The case is Palmer ex rel. Kovacs v. New Jersey Mfrs. Ins. Co., No. A-0854-15T3, 2017 WL 6398789 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. December 14, 2017).

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