Articles
Pulte Home Corporation v. American Safety Indemnity – Modifying your attorney fee agreement to enhance damages is not permitted.
By Patrick A. Calhoon Damages for Insurance Bad Faith actions are peculiar in how they are calculated. The amounts for each item of damages (contract damages, attorney fees, emotional distress, and punitive damages) are all tied to one another in one way or another....
Making a Case for Coverage Under Designated Premises Endorsements
By Patrick A. Calhoon Your client is severely injured while working as a volunteer for a non-profit organization. You determine that the organization bears responsibility for your client’s injury. After the lawsuit is filed you learn that the organization is seriously...
Policy Limits Demands – Not the Only Way to Open the Policy and Collect an Excess Verdict
By Patrick A. Calhoon Much has been written about opening policy limits and creating the insurer’s liability for a verdict or judgment in excess of policy limits. Everyone will agree that the most effective way to open the policy is by providing the carrier with...
HMO Bad Faith – Does it exist?
By Patrick A. Calhoon Like millions of Californians, your client is enrolled in a Health Maintenance Organization (“HMO”) plan for her healthcare. Under these plans, the HMO plan contracts with health care providers, usually through medical groups known as Independent...
Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co. – Good News for Punitive Damage Awards in Insurance Bad Faith Cases
By Patrick A. Calhoon On June 9, 2016, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co., __ Cal.4th ___ (2016) (Nickerson) that attorney’s fees awarded to a plaintiff in an insurance bad faith lawsuit (“Brandt fees”) must be...
Beware the Stipulated Judgment
By: Patrick A. Calhoon Your client was seriously injured in a car accident. He has damages that undisputedly approach several million dollars. You sue the at-fault driver who has a $100,000 policy, and two other smaller policies for $25,000 with...
Zubillaga v. Allstate Indemnity Company – The Genuine Dispute Doctrine Will Not Automatically Insulate an Insurer from a Bad Faith Claim
By Patrick A. Calhoon Insurers often attempt to defend their claims decisions by relying on the advice and opinions of hired experts. As if it’s a force-field that protects bad claim decisions from any legal recourse, the so called “genuine dispute doctrine” defense...
Madrigal v. Allstate Ins. Co – A Case Study in Policy Limits Demands
By: Patrick A. Calhoon In the last edition of the Trial Bar News we reviewed Barickman v. Mercury Cas. Co. (2016) 2 Cal. App. 5th 508 and Mercury’s attempt to dodge an “open policy” argument arising from its failure to settle a case for the policy limits of $30,000....
Barickman v. Mercury Cas. Co – Sometimes Even an Offer to Pay Policy Limits Isn’t Enough to Defeat a Bad Faith Claim
By Patrick A. Calhoon In Barickman v. Mercury Cas. Co. (2016) 2 Cal. App. 5th 508, the California Court of Appeal affirmed a $3 million judgment arising from Mercury’s failure to settle a case for the policy limits of $30,000. How did that happen you ask? Believe it...
ERISA: In search of a fair review of claim denials.
By Patrick A. Calhoon Let’s face it, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) is the bane of a bad faith attorney’s existence. Nothing is worse than getting a call from a potential client who describes what sounds like the most ridiculous and baseless...
Pulte Home Corporation v. American Safety Indemnity – Modifying your attorney fee agreement to enhance damages is not permitted.
By Patrick A. Calhoon Damages for Insurance Bad Faith actions are peculiar in how they are calculated. The amounts for each item of damages (contract damages, attorney fees, emotional distress, and punitive damages) are all tied to one another in one way or another....
Making a Case for Coverage Under Designated Premises Endorsements
By Patrick A. Calhoon Your client is severely injured while working as a volunteer for a non-profit organization. You determine that the organization bears responsibility for your client’s injury. After the lawsuit is filed you learn that the organization is seriously...
Policy Limits Demands – Not the Only Way to Open the Policy and Collect an Excess Verdict
By Patrick A. Calhoon Much has been written about opening policy limits and creating the insurer’s liability for a verdict or judgment in excess of policy limits. Everyone will agree that the most effective way to open the policy is by providing the carrier with...
HMO Bad Faith – Does it exist?
By Patrick A. Calhoon Like millions of Californians, your client is enrolled in a Health Maintenance Organization (“HMO”) plan for her healthcare. Under these plans, the HMO plan contracts with health care providers, usually through medical groups known as Independent...
Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co. – Good News for Punitive Damage Awards in Insurance Bad Faith Cases
By Patrick A. Calhoon On June 9, 2016, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co., __ Cal.4th ___ (2016) (Nickerson) that attorney’s fees awarded to a plaintiff in an insurance bad faith lawsuit (“Brandt fees”) must be...
Beware the Stipulated Judgment
By: Patrick A. Calhoon Your client was seriously injured in a car accident. He has damages that undisputedly approach several million dollars. You sue the at-fault driver who has a $100,000 policy, and two other smaller policies for $25,000 with...
Zubillaga v. Allstate Indemnity Company – The Genuine Dispute Doctrine Will Not Automatically Insulate an Insurer from a Bad Faith Claim
By Patrick A. Calhoon Insurers often attempt to defend their claims decisions by relying on the advice and opinions of hired experts. As if it’s a force-field that protects bad claim decisions from any legal recourse, the so called “genuine dispute doctrine” defense...
Madrigal v. Allstate Ins. Co – A Case Study in Policy Limits Demands
By: Patrick A. Calhoon In the last edition of the Trial Bar News we reviewed Barickman v. Mercury Cas. Co. (2016) 2 Cal. App. 5th 508 and Mercury’s attempt to dodge an “open policy” argument arising from its failure to settle a case for the policy limits of $30,000....
Barickman v. Mercury Cas. Co – Sometimes Even an Offer to Pay Policy Limits Isn’t Enough to Defeat a Bad Faith Claim
By Patrick A. Calhoon In Barickman v. Mercury Cas. Co. (2016) 2 Cal. App. 5th 508, the California Court of Appeal affirmed a $3 million judgment arising from Mercury’s failure to settle a case for the policy limits of $30,000. How did that happen you ask? Believe it...
ERISA: In search of a fair review of claim denials.
By Patrick A. Calhoon Let’s face it, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) is the bane of a bad faith attorney’s existence. Nothing is worse than getting a call from a potential client who describes what sounds like the most ridiculous and baseless...