Bad faith awards can cost insurance companies millions of dollars in addition to actual damages.
An appellate court in California has rejected an appeal by GEICO General Insurance Company from a judgment awarding $1 million in punitive damages for Geico's bad faith breach of an insurance contract.
|The Case
After Michael Mazik was involved in a serious automobile accident on a highway in Riverside County, Calif., he received $50,000 from Mercury Insurance Company, the insurer for the driver of the other car who was at fault in the accident. That sum was the full value of the driver's policy.
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Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].
