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Also supportive of the assessment of punitive damages is the fact that this course of conduct was taken by a nationally recognized insurance agency and, apparently, in accordance with their national claims practices and procedures to curb small, soft-tissue claims. The evidence presented in this case was such that a jury could have concluded that the acts committed by Allstate were pursued with a conscious indifference for Dodson and with deliberate intent to injure him.

After considering all of the circumstances, we conclude that awarding punitive damages does not shock the conscience of this court. The question is the appropriate amount of those damages, and we will discuss this as a part of the cross appeal. The Oregon Supreme Court analyzed controlling federal law, and concluded the maximum punitive damages multiplier would be four times, based upon the specific facts of the case.

The court stated the following evidence justified the imposition of the maximum amount of punitive damages against Farmers:. Given the evidence, a rational juror could find the following facts: 1 Defendant, in calculated fashion, engaged in a protracted course of conduct -- from its initial 'stonewalling' and 'low-balling' tactics through its fraudulent manipulation of the claims evaluation process and its refusal to settle even at trial -- that exposed its insured to the virtual certainty of a devastating excess verdict in a 'no defense' case.

Munson was not stonewalled once; he was stonewalled many times, over a period of years. Moreover, Munson's case was not an isolated incident. A rational jury could have inferred from the evidence that, as one lawyer had said, "Voth doesn't pay policy limits" -- i. In summary, we conclude that defendant's actions were directed at a financially vulnerable victim, were not confined to this victim alone, and involved intentional malice and deceit Specifically, the jury could infer that the person injured by defendant's conduct Munson was financially vulnerable and defendant knew it, that defendant's tortious conduct was not an isolated incident but, instead, was a deliberate pattern and practice, and that defendant acted deceitfully and with malice.

The evidence supporting the bad faith judgment included the manner in which the claim was handled, where Farmers violated rules contained within its own training manual about wrongfully invoking an appraisal process.

At the time the claim was filed, Farmers did not have in its possession any information to deny payment of the claim, so its denial of payment was wrongful. Farmers unreasonably delayed payment on the contents coverage to pressure the insured to settle on the loss of the structure. There was also evidence that Farmers unreasonably withheld payment by the branch office waiting a year to request authority from the home office to settle for the policy limits, and after that authority was finally granted, the authority for policy limits was never offered to the insured.

Farmers financially motivated its employees to increase revenue by lowering claim payouts. Its Partners in Progress program was adopted in , which compensated employees by how well claim payouts were reduced, and which was aimed at current and future performance.

Goals for future performance were to reduce the average paid claim for bodily injury, collision, property damage and other categories, compared to previous years. This is the ratio of earned premium to claims payments plus operational and claims handling costs. If the ratio is then the insurance company is breaking even; however, if the ratio exceeds one hundred the insurance company incurs an underwriting loss.

The largest portion of the cost side of the combined ratio is claims payments. For a claims department to contribute to company profitability, that must include a reduction of claims payments.

In addition to its compensation and bonus programs, Farmers has made other efforts to turn its claims department into a profit center. Farmers also instituted a series of bonus programs aimed at rewarding claims personnel for contributing to company profits. Farmers began its Quest for Gold bonus program in for all Farmers offices and employees.

This goal was tied to management performance plans, with compensation paid to claims employees who reduced claims payouts. The policyholder died 39 days after an auto collision caused by the fault of an uninsured motorist on November 23, The attorney for his estate repeatedly made requests for USAA to pay medical expenses and funeral expenses, yet no payment was made nor did USAA provide an explanation for not making the payments. The court noted an insurer has an "implied-in-law duty to act in good faith and deal fairly with the insured to ensure that the policy benefits are received," and the essence of a bad-faith action "is the insurer's unreasonable, bad-faith conduct, including the unjustified withholding of payment due under a policy.

An insurer may not treat its own insured in the manner in which an insurer may treat third-party claimants to whom no duty of good faith and fair dealing is owed. The Oklahoma Supreme Court specifically held as follows:. The Court of Civil Appeals in this matter held that. The first three of USAA's pre-litigation. Confusion was also created by the instructions not distinguishing between actual damages on the claim for uninsured motorist benefits and actual damages for compensatory damages on the bad faith claim.

The evidence presented at trial demonstrated. USAA's bad faith in its handling of the Newport claim. Based on this Court's review of the transcripts, exhibits. Further, the amount of. Widespread Dishonest Claims Handling Practices. They pay them! Many carriers have employee review and incentive plans, with results being measured as outlined above, which are focused on not fairly paying claims to achieve corporate financial goals.

Updates to this article are planned to include the specifics about dishonest claims handling practices by other carriers. Insurance Defense Lawyer Ethical Misconduct. Billions of dollars of increased revenue per year from denying fair compensation to policyholders and other injuried consumers easily justifies the payment of many millions of dollars per year to insurance defense counsel, as enforcers of the mandated hardball claims methods, which keeps the extra billions of dollars of annual revenue flowing to the insurance companies.

In addition to the misconduct quoted in the above court opinions, numerous other examples of insurance defense lawyer misconduct are listed in the case of Lioce v. In third-party cases it is especially troubling that some defense lawyers ignore the ethical duties owed to the insured individual defendants for whom they are hired by the insurance company to defend. Instead, some defense lawyers follow insurance company marching orders as quoted above, and do the bidding of adjusters to win cases using questionable tactics and engaging in unprofessional misconduct.

Settling injury claims on a reasonable basis is in the best interest of the insured because it avoids the risk of an excess jury verdict for which the insured is personally liable, and the time, stress and expense otherwise incurred by the insured when the insurance company forces a jury trial by not making a reasonable settlement offer. Some ignore their independent defense lawyer ethical duties to first be a peacemaker and try to settle claims, instead of using litigation as a last resort for dispute resolution.

Kelton, [33] where we fought and won the battle to keep insurance company staff attorneys from being assigned to represent insured defendants in Arkansas in third party cases, as it was the right thing to do to help policyholders receive representation by independent defense lawyers rather than insurance company employee lawyers with a built in conflict of interest.

This decision helped injury plaintiffs by establishing that insured defendants have a right to be represented by independent defense lawyers, who hopefully will have the ethical fortitude to tell the insurance company to pay the claim based upon a fair evaluation, and refuse to do the bidding of some adjusters to character assassinate the claimant and otherwise do what it takes to win at all costs in violation of the ethical rules.

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