A Video Explaining the Effect of the Tort of Bad Faith

Why it is Time to Abolish the Tort of Bad Faith

It is indisputable that in the 1950’s, 1960's and 1970’s the insurance industry abused some insureds to avoid paying legitimate claims. Without a factual basis, insureds were accused of arson or other variations on insurance fraud. Indemnity payments were refused on the flimsiest of excuses. People were found to have diseases that only horses could catch. Disability payments were refused because an insured was wheeled in her wheelchair to church one day and, therefore, was not totally house-confined. Insureds were driven into bankruptcy when reasonable demands within policy limits were refused.

To stop this abuse, the courts of the state of California invented the tort of bad faith. It took a universal contract remedy and decided that the breach of an insurance contract without, what the court decided was proper, genuine or even fairly debatable reasons, was transferred from a contract breach into a new tort. Many other states have followed the lead.

Until the invention of the tort of bad faith all that an insured could collect from an insurer that wrongfully denied a claim were the benefits due under the policy. After the creation of the tort of bad faith, the courts allowed the insureds to collect, in addition, the entire panoply of tort damages, including punitive damages.

It worked. Insurers treated the insureds better. The threat of punitive damages made insurers wary of rejecting any claim. The creation of the tort of bad faith was in many ways a good thing for insurers and insureds. What the courts that created the tort of bad faith did not recognize was that it was also the key to Pandora’s box of abusive lawyers who found it to be a new profit center for their practices.

Bad faith litigation is not a game, where insureds are free to manufacture claims for recovery. It is time that it is abolished from litigation in the United States

© 2021 – Barry Zalma

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost

equally for insurers and policyholders. He also serves as an arbitrator or mediator for insurance related disputes. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 52 years in the insurance business. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award.

Over the last 53 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created the following library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.

Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma;  Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ Read posts from Barry Zalma at https://parler.com/profile/Zalma/posts; and the last two issues of ZIFL at https://zalma.com/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-2/