The case of Kemper v. Equity Ins. Co., No. 1:15-cv-2961-MLB, 2021 WL 4134413 (N.D. Ga. August 30, 2021) is a bad faith failure-to-settle case involving Equity Insurance Company, a liability carrier. The case arose from an automobile accident between one Amy Marie Kemper, the injured claimant and the plaintiff, and one Christopher Brown. Mr. Brown was Equity Insurance Company's insured.
During the course of the proceedings, the plaintiff filed a motion to bar an attorney retained by the carrier as an expert witness "from offering expert testimony about (1) 'the custom and practice of claims professionals in the insurance industry' and (2) 'establishing escrow accounts.'” In a ruling which follows many other decisions of like kind in like circumstances, the Court in this case denied the plaintiff's motion and refused to bar the attorney-expert's testimony as to "the custom and practice of claims professionals in the insurance industry[.]" Kemper, 2021 WL 4134413, at *1.
In what at first glance may seem to be a case of first impression, on the other hand, the Court granted the plaintiff's motion to preclude the attorney-expert from offering opinion testimony on the subject of "establishing escrow accounts." The Court resolved this issue by invoking the clearly settled rule that experts are not permitted to testify on issues beyond their expertise. To put it in the vernacular, even experts have to stay in their own lanes. See Kemper, 2021 WL 4134413, at *1.
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