Pleading Insurer Bad Faith Claims: Evolving Pleading Standards, Surviving or Filing a Motion to Dismiss
Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Estate Planning
- event Date
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
- schedule Time
1:00 PM E.T.
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
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This CLE course will discuss pleadings standards for insurer bad faith claims, what plaintiffs must allege to survive a motion to dismiss, and how insurers can leverage tougher pleadings standards to win a motion to dismiss. The program will look at case law developments and how the courts have been applying tougher pleadings standards to bad faith claims and outline best practices for both the policyholder and insurer in pursuing or defending these claims at early motion stage.
Mr. Garbowski is an attorney in the Insurance Recovery group in Anderson Kill's New York office. His practice concentrates on insurance recovery, exclusively on behalf of policyholders, with particular emphasis on professional liability insurance, directors and officers insurance, fidelity and crime-loss policies, internet and high-tech liability insurance issues.
Mr. Horkovich has obtained over $8 billion in settlements and judgments from insurance companies for his clients. He is a trial lawyer with substantial experience in trying complex insurance coverage actions on behalf of corporate policyholders and governmental entities. Mr. Horkovic’s victories include one of the top 10 jury verdicts in the United States, the top insurance recovery jury verdict in the United States, seven landmark state Supreme Court decisions, eight jury verdicts and nine bench trial decisions in favor of the policyholder including engaging on several significant projects by the United Nations as its general insurance counsel and the state of California where Anderson Kill served as lead trial in the state's suit against dozens of insurance companies over coverage for cleanup of the Stringfellow Acid Pits (what a federal court described as the most complex environmental clean-up in the world). Mr. Horkovich is a frequent author and lecturer on insurance recovery topics.
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.
- Pleadings practices for policyholders to survive a motion to dismiss on a bad faith claim
- Insurer strategies to get allegations of bad faith dismissed
- 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?
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