Pleading Insurer Bad Faith Claims: Evolving Pleading Standards, Surviving or Filing a Motion to Dismiss

Bad faith allegations are a potent weapon for policyholders in coverage litigation to negotiate for a higher settlement due to the risk of an unacceptable jury award. To leverage this tool, policyholder counsel must carefully draft complaint allegations to survive a motion to dismiss.

Insurer counsel must be prepared to leverage heightened pleadings standards with respect to bad faith allegations, especially with a declaratory judgment or breach of contract action.

When insureds fail to adequately specify how the insurer’s actions were unreasonable, tougher pleading requirements can be a powerful tool for insurers to attack the sufficiency of allegations.

Listen as our panel offers tactics for leveraging pleadings standards in insurer bad faith litigation and provides insights into how plaintiffs can survive a motion to dismiss and insurers can win the dismissal. The panel will review developments in court decisions and how the courts apply the tougher pleadings standards from the perspective of both the policyholder and the insurer.

1. Pleadings practices for policyholders to survive a motion to dismiss on a bad faith claim
2. Insurer strategies to get allegations of bad faith dismissed
3. Recent case law developments

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• Is the insurer’s disclaimer of coverage enough to state a bad faith claim?
• What facts regarding the insurer’s actions should policyholders include in the complaint to survive a motion to dismiss?
• How can insurers effectively leverage the enhanced pleading requirements to attack the sufficiency of a bad faith allegation?
• What guidance does case law provide on pursuing or defending bad faith allegations at the pleadings stage?