Insurance companies and business interests have suffered a blow early on in Florida’s legislative session. The House Civil Justice Committee voted recently to kill a bill that would have changed the rules for bad faith insurance litigation.
We’re continuing our story of a claims bill that will be heard by the Florida Legislature in 2012. If passed, the bill would compensate the victim of a car accident involving and caused by a deputy sheriff. The parties — the victim and the sheriff’s office — don’t object. The insurance company for the sheriff’s office does.
We’re picking up the thread from our Sept. 28 post, continuing the discussion of a claims bill scheduled for Florida’s next legislative session. The claim involves a personal injury suit against a county sheriffs department. The bill has languished for a couple of years, because the focus has shifted from compensating the victim and his family to setting a new precedent for insurance bad faith claims.
The family of a young man who was seriously injured in an accident 13 years ago may finally receive compensation in 2012. The Florida Legislature will once again consider a claims bill in his case, and the insurance industry is once again mounting a campaign opposing the measure. The issue for insurers is the potential bad faith claim that could follow the bill’s passage.
This is a continuation of our last post. We were talking about a case from outside of Florida that began with a fraternity hazing incident. A boy died during the hazing, and his parents sued the fraternity and four members and pledges for wrongful death.
If you search Miami and Florida news outlets for stories about fraternity hazing in any of the state’s colleges or universities, you won’t find many, or any, stories. A national search, unfortunately, will reveal multiple incidents, some at institutions with worldwide reputations for academic excellence. To warrant press coverage, of course, the incidents are most often tragic — and often tied to alcohol poisoning.
We’re continuing our discussion of an insurance bad faith case that recently moved a step closer to trial. The plaintiff suffered from anorexia and entered an outpatient treatment program. Her physicians discharged her shortly after she checked in, because they believed she needed more intensive treatment.
A federal judge recently denied a motion for summary judgment in a case brought by a health insurance policyholder. The woman claimed her insurer acted in bad faith when it denied payment for a residential program to treat her anorexia. The case was not in Florida; the ultimate outcome, though, could influence bad faith claims across the country.
Proposed legislation that would substantially change existing insurance law barely made it out of the Judiciary Committee of the Florida State Senate this week. For some members of the committee, the bad faith provision of Senate Bill 1592 is especially troubling. The bill is supposed to encourage settlements “in a fair and objective manner,” according to the sponsor. Opponents, however, say the bill, in effect, is killing an ant with an elephant.
The term “bad faith insurance” describes situations in which an insurance company refuses to pay claims that are covered under the policy. One example is a car insurance company that says they will not pay damages related to a car crash caused by a driver they cover.
