Bad Faith Insurance Claims Lawyers in Philadelphia

What Is Insurance Bad Faith?

Insurance bad faith occurs when your insurer wrongfully denies, delays, or minimizes the payment of a legitimate claim. Every insurance company has a legal obligation to act in good faith and deal fairly with its insureds. When they violate this fundamental duty, you may have a bad faith claim. Bad faith misconduct often arises in connection with:

• Homeowner, Auto, and Health Insurance Claims
• Disability Insurance Claims
• Life Insurance Claims
• Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Benefits
• Failure to Defend or Indemnify (Protecting you in a lawsuit)
• Insurance Discrimination

Notable Bad Faith Insurance Settlements and Verdicts

The attorneys at Feldman Shepherd have recovered millions of dollars against insurance companies that have acted in bad faith.

Among our notable cases, attorney Mark W. Tanner achieved a $7.9 million federal jury verdict, one of the largest bad faith jury verdicts ever handed down in Pennsylvania, against the medical malpractice insurer of a doctor who was exposed to a large jury verdict because his malpractice insurer failed to offer the limits of his policy to an injured patient. 

Tanner and attorney Peter M. Newman secured a $500,000 jury verdict in Philadelphia against a national insurance broker and two of its employees in a case where the broker produced a backdated waiver form, falsely claimed that it was valid and enforceable, and used it as a basis to reject uninsured motorist coverage for two police officers who were seriously injured in the line of duty. The verdict capped off a recovery in excess of $8 million that Tanner and Newman had achieved for the two officers. 

Other representative matters in which we have achieved substantial recoveries include:

• Homeowners Insurance: Our clients were homeowners whose home sustained significant water damage following successive winter storms that caused ice damming at the perimeter of their roof, with water flowing into the walls and onto the wood floors. They reported the damage to their homeowners' insurance company, which dragged its feet approving repairs. As weeks passed, mold began to grow on the drywall and the wood behind it. When the insurance carrier refused to pay to replace the roof and remediate the mold, we sued for bad faith and achieved a substantial settlement that included payment for all repairs as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.
• Underinsured Motorist Coverage: Our client was stopped in traffic when his vehicle was rear-ended. He sustained serious injuries to his neck and shoulder and could not return to work. The person who hit him had limited insurance, which was tendered, and our client turned to his own carrier for underinsured motorist coverage, which the carrier refused to pay for almost two years. We sued the carrier for its bad faith delay in adjusting the client’s claim and obtained a substantial six-figure settlement.
• Life Insurance: Our client was a widow who made a claim for life insurance benefits following her husband’s death. The insurer denied the claim for the stated reason that her husband had made material misrepresentations in his insurance application in not disclosing a cardiovascular condition in response to two questions on a medical questionnaire that asked for medical information “not previously disclosed.” Her husband did, in fact, disclose his condition and the identity of his treating physician in response to a previous question on the same medical questionnaire, and the insurer had the ability to obtain his medical records prior to issuing the policy. When the insurance company refused to pay, we sued for breach of contract and bad faith and achieved a substantial settlement for the client.