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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Insurance

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, August 13, 2024

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE webinar will discuss the discovery of claims management goals and adjuster performance incentives in bad faith insurance litigation. The panel will discuss when and why this information is relevant, what kinds of requests are appropriate and how to make them, what objections are likely to be raised, and what makes them succeed or fail.

Faculty

Susan E. Dinneen
Founding Member
Strauss Massey Dinneen LLC

Ms. Dinneen concentrates her practice on the representation of insurers in bad faith litigation, catastrophe/mass tort defense, insurance fraud, and insurance coverage matters. She also has experience defending Jones Act and LHWCA claims. Ms. Dinneen is a frequent speaker on bad faith insurance topics.

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Alan P. Jacobus
Attorney
Alan P. Jacobus, Attorney at Law

Mr. Jacobus' practice over the past decade has largely centered on high risk, high value insurance coverage litigation, but he comes from a broad civil and commercial litigation and trial background. He has tried jury trials to verdict in CA, IL and LA. Several of his cases have resulted in written opinions in trial courts and courts of appeal, and he has argued appeals in both state and federal courts.

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Janeen M. Thomas
Of Counsel
Saxe, Doernberger & Vita, P.C.

Ms. Thomas uses her over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry to solely advocate on behalf of policyholders in complex coverage disputes against insurance carriers. She deals daily with high exposure events and coverage litigation stemming from such events. Ms. Thomas has extensive experience with a national insurance coverage practice that focuses on liability and property damage matters, including claim coverage matters within the real estate and construction industries, particularly with respect to claims and litigated disputes involving professional liability, commercial general liability, bad faith, builder's risk, additional insured coverage, and contractual indemnity.

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Description

A plaintiff often contends that its claim was denied in bad faith because the adjustor who handled the claim had a financial incentive to deny legitimate claims. Courts have found that whether insurers have arbitrary goals for reducing claims or whether salaries and bonuses are paid for doing so are relevant to whether an insurer acted unreasonably and was aware of it.

In the era of runaway verdicts, this information can have a powerful effect on the jury. Discovery requests typically ask for targets, goals, plans, measurements, milestones or incentives, budgets, goals, financial measurements, and financial results. Insurers frequently object on a number of predictable grounds and may have valid concerns over the scope of the requests or how responses are to be produced. Once produced, it may be difficult to keep the data in context.

Listen as this preeminent panel of insurance litigators discusses the discoverability of claims management goals and adjuster performance incentives in bad faith insurance litigation and how recurring objections can be defeated or sustained.

Outline

  1. Relevance of requests on financial incentives
  2. Permissible scope of requests
  3. Form of production issues
  4. Objections

Benefits

The panel will consider these and other key issues:

  • Is it necessary to seek punitive damages before discovery of financial information is allowed?
  • What kind of temporal or geographic limits may be reasonable for these types of requests?
  • What are typical requests and objections?
  • In what format should the information be produced and who decides that?