Vulnerable Policyholders Must Know: Bad Faith Truth Exposed
Video Transcript
Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
“What is the end result of having a bad faith claim against the insurance company?”
Spencer Freeman – Fire Loss Attorney – Pierce County, WA
“So, in those cases, one thing would be, the actual damages, they got to pay what they owe you. They got to pay for the attorney’s fees you have incurred. And in the State of Washington…”
Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
“So, is that different? Does attorney fees come into play with bad faith but not otherwise?”
Spencer Freeman – Fire Loss Attorney – Pierce County, WA
“That’s not exactly true because if you just win on a strict breach of contract, you can collect attorney’s fees, potentially as well, underneath ‘Olympic Steamship’. If it’s bad faith, there’s no question. You get your attorney’s fees covered. But there’s also, in the State of Washington, the legislature has passed what’s called the ‘Insurance Fair Conduct Act’, which allows a court to impose triple damages against an insurance company for bad faith claims practices.
So, you…theoretically, can collect three times what your actual damages were if the insurance company engaged in bad faith. But the public really needs to understand that has been reserved for really extensively bad situations, and they shouldn’t just assume just cause there’s bad faith, ‘I get triple damages’. That’s not how it works. There’s going to be some scale that the court’s going to look at, like how unreasonable was the insurance company, or malintended was the insurance company, or how bad an effect did it have on somebody’s life.”
