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Bad Faith Secrets and Protective Orders

Chip Merlin — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:00:00 +0000

The insurance claims industry is in a constant battle to prevent policyholders and the public from knowing all the bad faith actions insurers do to delay, deny, and underpay claims. Like any bad actor, secrecy of the wrongful action is a core component to prevent accountability. We noted this motive for secrecy in Trade Secrets: Dynamite …

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Insurance Company Claims Adjuster Bonus Programs and Criteria

Chip Merlin — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 17:36:10 +0000

Insurance company adjusters and claims executives often receive bonus compensation. Ten years ago, we discussed this in a post, Carrier Bonus / Incentive Plans: Dynamite Discovery Decisions, where we observed: It is not breaking news that many insurance companies monetarily reward their claims department personnel for lowering claim payouts. Thankfully, most courts understand that this …

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Frontline Insurance Bad Faith—Do You Want to Do Something About How Frontline Treats Policyholders?

Chip Merlin — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Attorney Mark Nation contacted me and asked if I knew an expert that could help determine the amount of profit that Frontline makes from lowballing (underpaying and underestimating) property insurance claims. Nation has a bad faith lawsuit pending against First Protective Insurance Company d/b/a Frontline Insurance. In his response to a motion to dismiss, Nation discusses …

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Insurance Company Internal Claims Management Documents Should Demonstrate Good Faith Claims Processes

Chip Merlin — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 12:27:20 +0000

Insurance company claims management hates to have outside critical analysis over its handling of property insurance claims. Whether by regulators through market conduct examinations or discovery in claims practices cases by their own customers, the modern trend is to object to turning over these internal documents on every conceivable ground, including “trade secrets.” This has …

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Insurance Companies Always Fight Requests for Production of Internal Claims Management Objectives and Goals

Chip Merlin — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 06:30:55 +0000

Many policyholders think that insurance company adjusters get an individual bonus on each claim for paying less than a certain amount. They distrust the insurance company adjuster and often creatively claim more, fearing that the property insurance adjuster will wrongfully reduce the eventual settlement. The truth is that collectively, many insurance companies pay bonus incentives …

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Discovery Sanctions, Continued…

Merlin Law Group — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 07:22:59 +0000

On October 4, 2013, I wrote about a Florida state court judge levying severe sanctions against an insurance company and its attorney for allegedly playing fast and loose with the rules of discovery. This blog is aimed at keeping readers up-to-date. By order dated January 14, 2014, the new trial judge presiding over the case …

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Claim Delay 101

Merlin Law Group — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 06:30:53 +0000

This blog responds to a comment to my post, Discovery Efficiency: Dynamite Discovery Decisions, Part 21. The comment pertained to carrier delay in the claim and litigation processes and also noted the seeming desire of insurance companies to “run the clock out” through delay. I will address each of these comments in turn; but, first, …

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Appraisal After Flat Coverage Denial?

Merlin Law Group — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 06:30:34 +0000

A comment to my post, Discovery Efficiency: Dynamite Discovery Decisions, Part 21, asking whether a policyholder is entitled to appraisal after an insurer’s flat coverage denial. Preliminarily, this blog presumes that appraisal is available under the insurance contract. In Florida, if appraisal is available under the insurance contract, the answer is “yes” in some jurisdictions …

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Discovery Efficiency: Dynamite Discovery Decisions, Part 21

Merlin Law Group — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 05:30:57 +0000

Unless someone has a specific discovery topic they would like me to blog about, this will be my last post in this series. My prospective posts will be on issues related to Merlin Law Group’s disability, life, health, and long-term healthcare insurance practice. For my final post in this series, I’d like to focus on …

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Carrier Bonus / Incentive Plans: Dynamite Discovery Decisions, Part 20

Merlin Law Group — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 05:30:44 +0000

It is not breaking news that many insurance companies monetarily reward their claims department personnel for lowering claim payouts. Thankfully, most courts understand that this is an unacceptable business practice; so, it is not necessarily rare for courts to allow policyholders to discover information pertaining to bonus or incentive plans that insurance companies have in …

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Contractual and Extra-Contractual Discovery Overlap: Dynamite Discovery Decisions, Part 19

Merlin Law Group — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 05:30:00 +0000

This blog is an extension of my September 27th and October 18th posts. The decision that is the focus of today’s blog is brief and not-so-recent, but one of the holdings toward the end of the opinion is very well put and worth noting. In Bankers Security Insurance Company v. Symons,1 Florida’s Fifth District Court …

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Contractual and Extra-Contractual Discovery Overlap (continued): Dynamite Discovery Decisions, Part 18

Merlin Law Group — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 05:30:51 +0000

This blog is an extension of my September 27, 2013, blog. The focus of my earlier blog was a Florida federal court decision, whereas the focus of this blog is a Florida state court decision. The topic is whether or not certain aspects of a carrier’s claim file can be discovered during the contractual dispute. …

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