Bad Faith Litigation

Our firm specializes in defending carriers nationwide in first-party and third-party bad faith claims, handling lawsuits which seek extra-contractual damages and prejudgment interest under various state insurance statutes or common law. Defending these lawsuits requires a high degree of knowledge and experience to navigate what are often complex coverage and claims handling issues.

We have handled bad faith lawsuits arising out of a large variety of claims, including: environmental claims, construction claims, workers compensation claims, property claims, bodily injury claims, and trucking and personal auto accidents. We have also handled class action litigation involving bad faith allegations in connection with alleged misrepresentation to our clients' insureds.

We take a targeted approach to handling these claims by identifying and addressing situations where an insured or third-party will include a bad faith count in an attempt to leverage a settlement, versus more complex situations that may require extensive litigation to prove up and obtain summary judgment on liability for an excess judgment or settlement.

Our experience defending carriers against bad faith claims includes: time-limit demands, Stowers demands, policy limit demands, excess demands, alleged failure to settle, coverage denials, conflicts of interest, alleged breach of the duty to defend, estoppel, waiver, stipulated judgments, statutory claims (e.g., IL -215 ILCS 5/155 and MO -M.R.S. 537.065), and pattern and practice claims. As bad faith litigation frequently implicates sensitive issues, we work closely with our clients to ensure that their rights are fully protected and to achieve a resolution that is tailored to the specific facts underlying the claims against them.