Insurance / Bad Faith Litigation
BIREN/KATZMAN'S Attorneys Have A Track Record Of Successfully Handling All Types Of Insurance Bad Faith Cases
Insurance companies have a special relationship with their clients, who rely upon the insurance they purchase to protect them. Because of this special relationship, the law imposes a special burden in insurance companies - an obligation to deal fairly and in good faith with their policy holders. The breach of this obligation is called "bad faith." An insurance company that commits bad faith is liable not only for all compensatory damages (out of pocket losses), but also for any consequential damages (human damages, such as personal injuries, emotional distress, etc.) If the bad faith conduct is fraudulent, malicious or oppressive, the insurance company can also be liable for punitive damages.
There are an infinite number of ways that insurance companies can breach the obligation of good faith and fair dealing. Victims of insurance bad faith can be individuals or businesses. Often times, insurance bad faith cases raise very complex issues. If you or your business has sustained a significant financial loss as a result of your insurance company failing to deal fairly on your claim, you should contact the law office of BIREN/KATZMAN for a free consultation.
Our attorneys have considerable experience handling all types of insurance disputes and bad faith cases and have developed handling techniques designed to maximize our clients' recoveries in such cases. For example:
- Trial Lawyers - Perhaps the most significant difference between BIREN/KATZMAN's lawyers and many other lawyers involved in insurance disputes is that we are trial lawyers. When parties involved in insurance disputes are represented by general, business or corporate lawyers, while they may be excellent at giving business or tax advice or handling business transactions or litigating (handling the paper pushing component of a case), they do not have the expertise of dealing with insurance companies that comes from years of experience or the expertise of presenting this type of case at trial. Many times these non-trial lawyers settle for less than is due to the policy holders or fold before trial. Other times when they do go to trial, they simply are not as adept at presenting a case to a jury. BIREN/KATZMAN has a proven record of success in insurance dispute and bad faith cases built on extraordinarily thorough preparation combined with use of the best experts and creative approaches to communicating our client's story to the jury.
- Contingency Fees - Another thing that sets BIREN/KATZMAN apart from many other firms that handle insurance disputes is that we are willing to represent clients who we believe have a winning claim on a contingency fee basis. Often times, individuals or businesses who have been wronged by their insurance companies cannot afford expert counsel if they have to pay them on an hourly basis. Attorneys and CPAs who know how BIREN/KATZMAN works have referred us clients who we have obtained tremendous recoveries for, who could not have afforded to prosecute their claims if they had to pay out of pocket for legal representation.
- Maximizing Damages - It isn't enough to establish liability in an insurance dispute or bad faith case, the outcome of a client's case also depends on proving the full extent of damages. BIREN/KATZMAN knows how to find the best economists and other experts who can quantify our client's losses sustained as a result of their insurance company's wrongdoing. More importantly, we at BIREN/KATZMAN know how to present the damages to juries in a way that makes them understand that our clients have been truly harmed and deserve to be made whole to the full extent authorized by law.
- Team Approach / Principal Lawyer Handling - BIREN/KATZMAN is unique in that every case accepted by the firm is handled from start to finish by the firm's principals, Matthew B.F. Biren and Marc J. Katzman. Every case is approached on a team basis where every member of the firm works on the case. This team approach involving hands-on involvement of the principal lawyers is much different than how most firms work, where the handling is basically done by an associate and the senior lawyers only get involved, if at all, in the later stages of the case. Our clients profit from this approach because they not only get the benefit of our senior lawyers' extensive experience and knowledge, but they also get the input from many people, which substantially increases the creative ideas generated about handling, which translates to better results.
- Examples of Insurance Bad Faith Cases That Can Be Handled On Contingency Fees: There are an infinite number of ways that insurance companies can breach the obligation of good faith and fair dealing. Perhaps the most common breach involves either delay in paying benefits due to a policy holder or not offering fair value for the policy holder's loss. This situation can arise in automobile accidents (property damage claims, uninsured motorist claims, etc.), homeowner claims (damage from fires, theft, etc.), earthquake claims. Other situations where bad faith claims arise are where insurers fail to pay life or disability insurance benefits as it contracted to do; for example, Unum Provident is a persistent offender regarding disability benefits. Insurance companies deal unfairly with businesses by failing to pay for losses, under-evaluating losses, not paying for business interruption, etc. Other times insurance companies commit bad faith by failing to defend their policy holders against claims or not settling those claims within the policy limits when they have a chance to do so, resulting in the policy holder's personal assets being placed in jeopardy.
- Opening Policy Limits - One form of bad faith is where an insurance company fails to settle a claim within the policy limits of its insured. Under California law, when an insurance company commits bad faith in this manner, the policy limits are "opened;" the insurance company becomes obligated to saisfy any judgment against its insured, without regard to the insurance limits. BIREN/KATZMAN's trial lawyers excel in recognizing when a defendant's insurance company has opened the policy of a defendant and recovering more for their clients from the insurance company than the defendant's policy limits.
Our lawyers at BIREN/KATZMAN Trial Lawyers have achieved extraordinary recoveries for our business clients, including:
- A food business whose insurance company engaged in a bad faith refusal to pay them benefits after they had to destroy 100,000 pounds of product that was contaminated by listeria - erroneously claiming that a pollution exclusion applied -- was awarded $435,000 in compensatory damages and $12 million in punitive damages.
- In one of our most notable motor vehicle accident cases, Matthew B.F. Biren and an accident reconstruction engineer were able to convince a jury that, contrary to eyewitness accounts and first appearances at the accident scene, our client's pickup truck had not crossed into oncoming traffic, but rather the truck driven by the defendant had wandered into his lane, clipping his truck and starting the reaction that ultimately led to his tragic death. The jury awarded this 61 year old man's family (wife and adult children) $4,500,000. Because the defendant's insurer had failed to settle the claim for the defendant's $750,000 insurance limits(a form of bad faith), the policy was opened and the plaintiffs were able to recover $millions more than the defendant was insured for.
- A businessman whose insurance company delayed benefits so long that zoning changes precluded him from rebuilding his restaurant was paid $2.5 million bad faith damages by his insurance company.
If you or your business has suffered a significant financial loss because your insurance company has not paid benefits that they owed or has otherwise failed to act fairly and in good faith, you should contact the office of BIREN/KATZMAN to schedule a free initial consultation to review your case. Your consultation is free. Your recovery could begin today.
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