11th Circuit Sides with Geico in Insurance Bad Faith Claim
Jan 25, 2017
Recently, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling in support of an insurance company, clarifying the importance of what evidence is required in order to prove that a claimant has suffered from a permanent injury.
The bad faith case filed in the Middle District of Florida involved an insurance claim originally filed against Geico in 2009 for allegedly failing to provide the claimant—Catherine Cadle—with the maximum payout/settlement under her motorist policy for injuries she was supposedly suffering from due to a 2007 car accident. Geico responded that Cadle had failed to provide sufficient evidence that she actually suffered from a permanent injury.
Permanent Injuries
In claims involving allegations of permanent injuries, an insurer is entitled to rely on the documents provided by the claimant’s attorney; however, reliance on these documents cannot amount to bad faith (in other words, a court will not hold that an insurance company acted in bad faith in only relying on the documents provided by the plaintiff and failing to do their own investigation).
Posted in Insurance Defense · By HD Law Partners