{"id":1575,"date":"2013-05-08T06:26:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T12:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=1575"},"modified":"2013-05-07T11:52:56","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T17:52:56","slug":"inadvertent-bad-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/inadvertent-bad-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Inadvertent Bad Faith?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Trautman &#8211; April 24, 2013<\/p>\n<p>My father always gave me good advice. One thing he told me that I will never forget is to think before you speak. This is a lesson some insurance adjusters need to learn; and some may learn the hard way. Throughout the claims process, a few simple words could have a significant impact on a case and potentially open up an insurance carrier to a bad faith claim.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, I had a conversation with an adjuster on one of my client\u2019s cases. I explained we would be submitting additional information concerning decking and fencing that sustained damage in Hurricane Sandy. Without hesitation, the adjuster told me he considered them damaged by an excluded cause of loss under the policy. This was before the adjuster knew which portions of decking and fencing on this multilevel property I was speaking about. He likewise did not know the nature and extent of the damage we would claim.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, I recently spoke with a public adjuster handling a commercial claim from Hurricane Sandy. When the carrier\u2019s adjuster arrived for the site inspection, the first words out of his mouth were that he would not pay a business personal property claim or business interruption claim. Again, this was before the adjuster even viewed the totality of the damage. While an adjuster\u2019s first instinct might be to find any reason for denial, voicing that intention before receiving and reviewing a claim is a terrible business practice.<\/p>\n<p>The New Jersey Supreme Court held in Picket v. Lloyd\u2019s1 that to avoid a bad faith claim, an insurance carrier\u2019s seemingly bad faith actions must be \u201cfairly debatable\u201d Id. at 473. It is axiomatic that for a carrier\u2019s position on a claim to be \u201cfairly debatable,\u201d it must know the basis for the claim itself. Blanket denials without investigation \u2013 or even receipt of a claim &#8212; will provide excellent evidence of bad faith.<\/p>\n<p>Just like Dad advised, these adjusters would be well served to think of the ramifications of their words before they speak.<\/p>\n<p>1 Picket v. Lloyd\u2019s, 131 N.J. 457 (1993).<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com\/2013\/04\/articles\/bad-faith\/inadvertent-bad-faith\/index.html\">Inadvertent Bad Faith? : Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Trautman &#8211; April 24, 2013 My father always gave me good advice. One thing he told me that I will never forget is to think before you speak. This is a lesson some insurance adjusters need to learn; and some may learn the hard way. Throughout the claims process, a few simple words could&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/inadvertent-bad-faith\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Inadvertent Bad Faith?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[140,339],"class_list":["post-1575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance-claims","tag-bad-faith","tag-insurance-adjuster","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Indadvertent Bad Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Throughout the claims process, a few simple words could have a significant impact on a case and potentially open up an insurance carrier to a bad faith claim.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/inadvertent-bad-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indadvertent Bad Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Throughout the claims process, a few simple words could have a significant impact on a case and potentially open up an insurance carrier to a bad faith claim.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/inadvertent-bad-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advise &amp; 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