Amended Missouri statute provides roadmap for insurers to avoid bad faith liability claims when insufficient coverage for multiple claimants
HeplerBroom has a long history of defending insurance producers across Illinois, with a strong appellate record on the ordinary-care duty and statute of limitations issues in particular. Western Cons. Prem. Properties, Inc., v. Norman-Spencer Agency, Inc., 845 F.3d 313 (7th Cir. 2017) (duty); RVP, LLC, v. Advantage Insurance Services, Inc., 2017 IL App (3d) 160276 (statute of limitations). We’re seeing new cases in which the producer defendant is alleged to owe a duty not only to its client to procure the policy he requests, but also to an additional insured on that policy.
The ...
It used to be in Illinois that an insurance broker could be sued for breach of fiduciary duty for just about any policy-related misdeed. See, e.g., Faulkner v. Gilmore, 251 Ill.App.3d 34 (3d Dist. 1993) (alleging breach of fiduciary duty for a broker’s failure to advise insureds to terminate their master surety agreement.) The fiduciary-duty claim did not need to involve the actual handling of client monies; the counts were essentially repackaged negligence or breach of contract allegations, labelled with a seemingly-heightened sense of breached duty.
But in 1997 the Illinois ...
As we have learned in recent days, we all need to be careful with the things we say, for sometimes those things we say can be used against us. But the life lessons do not end there. We also need to read things carefully, for the things we fail to read can be used against us as well, especially holders of insurance policies.
A recent opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court, Third District, in Laurent v. Johnson, 2017 IL App (3d) 160627, shows just how far an insured’s duty to read his or her insurance policy can reach. The Laurent plaintiff sued the lawyer of her deceased husband’s estate for ...
We all say things we regret. But sometimes, those things we say can be used against us. The same goes for insurance companies. So held the Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, in its recent unpublished decision in Country Preferred Ins. Co. v. Badri-Monaghan, 2017 IL App (2d) 170134-U. The court started the year with a decision finding an insurance company was estopped from asserting a coverage defense based on statements made to the insured by the agent. The policy required the insured to submit a written demand for arbitration, which she failed to do. The evidence showed ...
