Join me at the ACI Bad Faith Litigation Conference!
Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking at the ACI Bad Faith Litigation Conference in Orlando, Florida. I will be giving the View from the Policyholder’s Bar on bad faith claims. Here are additional details about the conference:
Tuesday, November 30 to Wednesday, December 01, 2010Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida, United StatesWhy do so many defense counsel, plaintiff attorneys and in-house insurance professionals attend this event every year?
Because this unique event combines a multi-disciplinary, cross-country faculty from both sides of the issue, making it the event the industry relies on to get practical strategies for resolving coverage disputes, mitigating risk, and gaining the upper-hand in bad faith lawsuits.
Bad faith litigation claims are on the rise and showing no signs of slowing down. With juries returning larger than ever verdicts, the stakes are high for plaintiffs and defendants alike. Never has there been a more important time for attorneys and in-house professionals to be able to skillfully maneuver through the bad faith litigation process.
At American Conference Institute’s 21st National Advanced Forum on Bad Faith Litigation, the best and the brightest in the bad faith industry will share their insights and winning strategies on critical issues. Featuring:
- A judicial panel with jurists from around the country;
- A keynote address from insurance commissioners in two “hotbed” states;
- An in-house counsel and claims examiner panel; and
- Insights from the policyholders’ bar
No other conference in the industry allows you to interact with the leaders in the industry while hearing the theories and defenses that can turn cases for or against you!
Litigators who specialize in bad faith should attend this conference to get practical strategies and exchange tactics with some of the most successful lawyers in the country who bring and defend these cases regularly. Panels will shed light on the most effective ways to utilize the pleading stages to glean an advantage, developing evidence with an eye towards structuring dispositive motions, implementing credible case themes and properly managing discovery, among others.
In-house counsel and claims professionals know that as fast as insurance companies are responding to allegations of bad faith and implementing procedures to protect themselves from further litigation, plaintiffs’ counsel are creating new strategies for bringing – and winning – bad faith claims. Insurance professionals need to be at this conference to gain insights on new plaintiffs’ approaches and defense arguments so they can think strategically and proactively work to reduce bad faith claims.
This conference will provide even the most seasoned professionals with confi dence and clarity on today’s paramount bad faith issues facing the insurance industry. Come prepared with your most important and pressing questions and concerns to get the most out of this interactive conference.
Plus, add value to your attendance by also registering for our pre- and post-conference workshops:
A. Current Events In Bad Faith: The Gulf States
November 29, 2010 | 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.Post-Conference Concurrent Workshops on Bad Faith Hotbeds
December 1, 2010 | 2:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.B. Florida C. California D. Pennsylvania
Want to join me there? Then click here to register.
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Disclaimer:
This blog is for informational purposes only. This may be considered attorney advertising in some states. The opinions on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of the author’s law firm and/or the author’s past and/or present clients. By reading it, no attorney-client relationship is formed. If you want legal advice, please retain an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction. The opinions expressed here belong only the individual contributor(s). © All rights reserved. 2010.
Note: as a speaker at the conference, I will not be charged a fee to attend the remainder of the conference.
Corporate Insurance Blog 
March 26, 2011
Marla Davis
5214 Timber Ridge Drive
Sanford, NC 27332
9197085353 (Home)
9197217200 (Cell)
Complaint and request for help: This insurance company is not located in NC but is licensed here. They have been sued before for bad faith. They are in violation of our law against unfair claim handling, not to mention much bad faith and negligence.
I had house water damage on 10/30/2010 which is fully covered under my policy. I reported it immediately and mitigated thoroughly. Immediately, my insurance company ignored me, wouldn’t answer question, hung up, were rude and didn’t send an adjustor for 1 month. To make a 5 month long story of a still continuing nightmare short, the minute I reported them to the NCDOI, they stopped paying everything. They’ve lied and I have much written proof and many witnesses in this town who are reputable, experienced, licensed, and some from nationwide companies who witnessed and experienced most of it and wrote statements on my behalf. Attorneys told me they definitely are breaking NCGS 58-63-15. It is the explicit duty of the NCDOI to regulate and enforce this consumer law for people like me who can’t afford an attorney but the NCDOI turned around and re-victimized me again. Their network of good ole boys simply high-fived this crooked insurance company and again violated my rights under this policy and NC state law. I have gone to agency after agency and get conflicting answers from people in the same departments. It’s like a dead, useless government. I am a single mother, disabled female with lymphoma and breast cancer. I have paid my premiums in full for many years and laws have been and are currently being broken in not only extremely serious ways, but are risking many helpless victims very lives. This insurance company fought hard to leave my home untested and left with mold, which would have destroyed everything I paid for- for over 20 years. If they can do that to me, think what they can do to the millions much weaker and older than myself. This insurance company has been sued before for their malicious bad faith against poor property loss victims who were their policyholders. This company is simply greedy, dishonest and proceeds ahead in arrogance, violating weaker parties rights (they are bullies), and since they are getting by with it, they are fully convinced they are above the law. It can not believe what I have seen and can do nothing but work to expose them and their unfair policy handling strategies and tactics—which by the way, is a criminal offense just like robbing a bank is a crime. There is no difference. Fighting them made me so sick I ended up with pneu- monia and permanently lost my vocal chord gland, which is not curable. This is an abomination and is cruel. It’s sexual discrimination and is the result of a crooked insur-ance company abusing it’s authority and coming into NC to abuse helpless, elderly, young, old, women, single parents, poor, disabled, and many, many more. They owe me thousands of dollars I had to charge just to eat and am now paying interest on. I haven’t been able to pay several other bills since they didn’t reimburse me what they owe. I only even wanted them to at least pay the requirements of my policy which base is 50% depre-ciation. They’ve done that neither. They changed all the numbers around about 100 times and would put one contractors amount in a column or partial check, then would send the next summary removing that amount to pay another. This was no different than a rape. They raped me financially, emotionally, mentally and now that I’ve lost ½ my voice for the rest of my life, they raped my health also. My policy gives me full reimbursement for eating expenses of which they haven’t paid. They have fought over my coffees at McDonald’s and the one meal I ate a day, and have me paying them for meals I didn’t eat for one full month they were misleading and lying to me as I was trying to accommodate their every demand, just to have a home for my children at Christmas. I didn’t because they didn’t. They mocked me on the phone also and made fun of the fact I had to stay up late and type responses to document their abuse. They enjoyed it. I’ve never seen anything as sick and abusive as this right out in broad daylight. They owe my contractors and me money according to the law. They are breaking the law. This com-pany also owes my contractors and my home sits in full disrepair. I don’t have a bathroom sink. All my bathroom areas are unrepaired and this company owes thousands more dollars. An insurance lawyer told me I have a very, easy and solid case and that the NCDOI is a useless agency and does not do it’s job. He said they just go through the motions. I have been told this by several attorneys. How are they getting by with this? The public needs to know, especially since the race for NC Insurance Commissioner is in a several months in 2012. NC citizens pay millions to this elected official and it’s multitude of rude, untrained and mean workers. I knew the law better than they did and they are supposed to be helping me and protecting NC citizens and enforcing this statute and the other statutes that the Legislature made to save NC citizens from big, wealthy and greedy insurance crooks who average people, like myself can’t fight alone. I am in desperate need of help. I tried every single thing I could think of and what people suggested. The free state legal aid fully agreed I have been cheated but said they only had enough funds for other basic cases. I tried the online sites that list attorneys. I tried the bar association. I tried emailing many attorneys, many whom I found didn’t handle insurance law cases. I have prayed day and night.
This will never go away until I get justice, which will be the money I am owed since I purchased their policy and paid them for it. They are crooks and need to be exposed in full. As a former degreed legal assistant for 30 years before I was disabled, I have kept copious notes of their words and actions and they are so arrogant, they put their lies and comments in writing. I also believe my civil rights were violated long ago by this company. I need help badly so I can go on with what’s left of my life, so that I can get the money to repair my home so my own children won’t be cheated more than they already have, and so that this insurance company will be stopped from bringing this nightmare to anyone else in this state; and an honest politician can be elected to the NCDOI so this department won’t be also robbing NC taxpayers for their adequate salaries I’m sure. I have also tried to find a lawyer to sue for negligence (especially since I have the permanent physical vocal chord damage since they ran me like a dog, their policy holder who was of course, like anyone who has gone through trauma, totally vulnerable, and of which their duty to show undue diligence and good faith did not exist. In fact, they made themselves my competitive enemy to trick me and not have to pay money. Real big men to bully someone like my children and me alone. People should know what they did and I’m sure what they’ve done and are doing.
I did nothing wrong. I acted in good faith. I just had serious home damage that destroyed at least 1/3 of my home and called my paid insurance company to ask them to help me and ask them what to do. Never once did they tell me. They just started their strategy while I sat here in shock like a sitting duck. I need the money they owe me since I am now sitting in a damaged and only partially fixed home. I need help since our democratic system and our Constitution disallows a criminal company from violating every right our law promises us in this country. And what they did, is abhorrent. And I fully know I am representing many more victims that have been done the same way by this company and this state insurance commission office and that by helping me, millions will be helped, just like me, maybe worse. And you know what, even if I am left cheated with no whole home, all the above still needs to be done to protect this from happening to one more person, child and/or family. Help please!
Marla, sorry to hear about your story. I don’t handle personal insurance claims as part of my practice. You might, however, contact Paul Lucey, who is a North Carolina lawyer who handles insurance disputes, to see if he can help you. You can find his website here: http://www.paullucey.com/.