Los Angeles Injury Lawyer Blog

Most people in the United States have one form of insurance or another. The type of insurance can range from car insurance to homeowner’s insurance to life insurance. The purpose of insurance policies is to ensure that if something happens to you or your property, the damage will be partially or entirely paid for. All of these insurance policies have different options for people to pick from, ranging from very limited coverage to full coverage. For example, in car insurance policies, some policies will only cover damage to other cars while others will cover damage to both your car and the other car, regardless of fault.

Before you pick an insurance policy, there is usually paperwork given to you outlining the exact limits of your policy. Those limits are binding to both you and the insurer. If the insurer reneges on the policy once something happens to you, then you may be able to sue them for bad faith. The concept of this lawsuit is that in all of the insurance policies, there comes an implied “good faith” portion, meaning that the company will act in good faith and protect you under the terms of the policy. If the company violates that good faith clause, then they may be civilly liable for your damages.

Each insurance policy is different, and if you have found yourself in a potential insurance bad faith case, then you need to consult with an experienced attorney in the area. Greenberg & Rudman LLP has knowledgeable and experienced attorneys who may be able to help you obtain compensation for your damages, so call us now at 1-800-252-9776 (1-800-ALAWPRO) for your free and confidential consultation. Check us out at www.alawpro.com to read more about insurance bad faith cases.

If you or a loved one has suffered personal injury in Pomona, California, it is important that you seek the guidance of experienced legal professionals to help you understand your rights and remedies. The lawyers at the Law Offices of Greenberg & Rudman LLP have experience in the following practice areas:

• Motor vehicle (car, truck, bus) accidents


• Premises liability (slip & fall, trip & fall, workplace & construction injuries)


• Dog bites and animal attacks


• Defective products


• Pharmaceutical injury and medical malpractice


• Toxic, environmental torts


• Injuries such as burn, spinal cord, brain, broken bones, back pain

In addition to over 50 years of combined legal experience, our attorneys have successfully collected over $150 million for our clients. More importantly, we advance all costs so that you don’t have to pay a dime until we first collect money for you. If you think that you have suffered injury at the wrong of others, call now so that we can give you a personal assessment of your situation. We’ll even come to your home or medical room to sign you up. Call 1-800-ALAWPRO (1-800-252-9766) now. We’ll do what it takes to help you through this difficult time.

When an employee gets a disability insurance policy paid by their employer, they cannot sue for bad faith in California as it is considered an ERISA benefit and the federal government preempts state law. However, if an individual pays for their own disability policy, and the insurance company refuses in bad faith to pay for the covered disability benefits, the insured can sue for the unpaid benefits and for what is called bad faith insurance. This is what happened to one of our clients. In our client's case, he had been paying for a disability policy for many years. He then had business trouble, and subsequently suffered a mental breakdown. He went to see a psychiatrist a few times who prescribed medicine. Our client stopped going to his doctor as he moved out of state, but he kept renewing the prescription, and would call his doctor on the phone occasionally when the need arose. The insured (our client) applied for the disability benefits, and the insurance company continually refused to pay the benefits. This added to the stress of the client who eventually couldn't take the stress any longer and committed suicide. The disability insurance company claimed that the insured did not conform to the terms of the policy by continuing to see his medical provider. We showed that a person is indeed continuing to see his doctor when he is in telephone contact with his doctor and continues to seek medical advice by phone. Eventually we were able to settle the case for his wife and child and get them compensation for their loss. While it did not make up for the personal loss they suffered, it did help them to pay expense and be able to keep up their standard of living for the children. If you or a loved one have been the victim of bad faith insurance you should consult with a lawyer to learn your rights. If you are located in the state of California, please call us at 1-800-ALAWPRO (1-800-252-9776).

Our client suffered personal injury in a Los Angeles car accident, when two other negligent drivers collided in an intersection, and one of their cars came crashing into our client's stopped vehicle. She came to our personal injury law firm because the other drivers' insurance companies were acting in bad faith, and wouldn't accept responsibility for the accident. She needed a car accident lawyer who would fight for her to get her compensation for her medical bills, property damage and pain and suffering.

Eventhough our client was not at fault for the accident, the other two drivers' insurance companies didn't want to pay for our client's damages because they were pointing the finger at each other. So we sued both of them.

The car accident happened when our client was stopped for a red light on a street outside Cal State Los Angeles. As she was waiting for the light to turn green, she saw a car from her left speeding straight through the intersection. At the same time an SUV coming from her right was trying to make a left turn onto the street she was on. The car coming from the left broadsided the SUV as it was completing its turn. The SUV was redirected towards our client's stopped car and crashed into it head on, pushing our client's car back almost a full car length.

Although our client only suffered soft tissue muscle sprains and strains, her injuries had a big impact on her life. The pain in her shoulder was so bad that it would sometimes cause her to "lock up" and not be able to turn her head to the left or right.

Each of the negligent drivers had a minimal insurance policy with a $15,000 limit. We did an asset search and found that neither of the drivers had significant assets and that we would not be able to collect any more than their insurance policies. We therefore demanded that each insurance company pay their $15,000 within 30 days.

The insurance company for the driver that was speeding straight through the intersection buckled and paid their $15,000 before the 30 days had passed.

The insurance company for the left turning SUV ignored us and so we prepared for trial. As the trial date approached, the SUV's insurance company eventually offered the $15,000, but we said it was too late. It would have to pay more now. (An insurance company has a duty to its insured to act reasonably and settle a case within the policy limits when it has the chance. If it doesn't and at trial a jury gives a verdict for more than the policy limits, the insurance company faces the choice of either paying the full verdict, or risking being sued by its insured for acting in bad faith, and exposing the insured to liability in excess of the policy limits).

The insurance company for the SUV refused to pay more than the $15,000 policy limits and so we went to trial. The defense argued that the driver who we already settled with was solely at fault for the accident and that our client wasn't injured in the accident. We hired an accident reconstruction expert to testify how the accident occurred, a biomechanical expert to testify how the accident caused our client's injuries, and an orthopaedic doctor to testify about our client's injuries and the medical treatment she received.

The jury sided with us and found the SUV driver to be primarily at fault for the accident and our client's injuries.

At the end of the day the SUV's insurance company was forced to pay $67,500 (instead of the $15,000 we originally demanded). Combined with the $15,000 settlement with the first driver, we were able to collect $82,500 on a case that it originally seemed $30,000 was the best we could hope for.

The Los Angeles Times reported that individual patients dropped by Blue Shield insurance may file a class action lawsuit for cancelling policies after policyholders submitted claims. A three-judge panel in the California 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that canceling an individual health insurance policy for omitting information or making a mistake on an application after claims are submitted is strictly prohibited under state law. This is a victory for consumers and opens the way for class-action lawsuits against insurers that have improperly dropped policyholders.

This suit was filed by a Los Angeles jeweler, Augusto Ticconi, whose policy was canceled after his appendix burst and he submitted medical bills totaling more than $100,000. He believes that Blue Shield investigated his application only as a way to avoid paying his bills. In addition he stated that Blue Shield failed to attached his application to his policy when it issued it, which would invalidate the recision. The first trial court ruled in favor of Blue Shield and rejected the class action; however, the appeals court came to a different conclusion.

The practice of California health insurance companies waiting until after individuals incur medical expenses before they analyze policies for misstatements was called into question by the California Court of Appeals. The practice of looking back at claims after expenses are submitted is called post-claims underwriting and is not allowed. All three judges were unanimous in this decision and added that insurers must attach a copy of the application to the policy in order to cancel it. This decision could open the door to several class-action lawsuits against insurance companies.

Blue Shield of California Life & Health Insurance Co. insists that it is following state law which allows insurers to cancel individual policyholders who omit information or make false statements on applications. A spokesman for Blue Shield stated that the ruling was limited to whether or not a class can be certified and that the court ruled that it could. But other experts agree that this is a blow for Blue Shield and other insurance companies and a victory for patients.

Los Angeles, California. Our clients’ parents were killed in a car accident at night when they hit a tractor trailer truck with no lights on. Because the tractor trailer truck did not have any lights running and was negligent in warning oncoming cars of its presence, we sued them for the wrongful death of the parents. The trucking company had an insurance policy for $250,000, but the insurance company refused to settle the case for this amount on the advice of their lawyer. We took the case to trial, and the jury awarded our clients $750,000 for the wrongful death of their parents. The insurance company paid this amount and then hired us, the Law Offices of Greenberg & Rudman LLP, to sue their attorney for not protecting them against an insurance bad faith claim. We ultimately collected on the negligent lawyer’s policy and helped the insurance company offset some of the cost of the case.

A truck driver was pulling a double trailer across the country road moving from a farm on one side of the road to a farm on the other side of the road at night without any lights. Our clients’ mother and father were driving down a country road in the dark when they suddenly struck the side of the trailer being pulled by the farm tractor. The trailer did not have it's running lights on at the time which would have warned the father that there was a trailer across the two lane road. Both parents died as a result of crashing into the side of the trailer.

The parents had been on their way to visit one of their sons who was incarcerated in a state prison. They also had three other sons. All four of the sons were adults, but two of the sons had mental deficiencies and had lived at home with their parents. Both of these sons had a mental capacity of children about ten or twelve years old. The loss of their parents was a devastating tragedy for these children. The trucking company had a liability policy of insurance that covered the trucking company for $250,000 in liability. We made a demand to settle the case for the $250,000 policy limits. Our claim was that the parents had supported and cared for the two mentally handicapped grown sons, and would have continued to do so for the rest of their lifetimes. The other son would now have to provide the care, comfort and support of his two mentally handicapped brothers for the rest of their lives. The insurance company refused to pay the policy limits.

We went to trial, and the trial seemed to be going well. However, the insurance company lawyer still refused to recommend to his insurance carrier that they should pay the policy limits. The jury awarded our clients $750,000. The insurance company paid the entire $750,000 judgment, and hired our firm to sue their own lawyer for not having told them to pay the policy. They knew at that point that we had a bad faith lawsuit against the insurance company for not protecting their insured from a substantial exposure over the insured amount. We learned that the lawyer kept telling the insurance company that he was winning the case, when in fact, the jury didn't like him, and were very sympathetic for our clients. We collected the attorney's negligence policy to help the insurance company recoup part of their money paid in excess of their policy.

Insurance bad faith refers to a claim by an Insured person against their insurance company for a claim that is wrongfully denied by the Insurer. In plain terms, this means that an insurance company must act in “good faith” toward a policy holder, and if they violate that obligation, many states allow the policyholder to sue the insurance company for insurance bad faith. If you are in this situation, you will need an insurance bad faith lawyer to represent you. Most states have specific laws that that regulate the insurance industry. In the 1970’s, California courts decided that policyholders could sue their insurance companies for bad faith, and several other states followed. Injury attorneys and accident lawyers are all too familiar with insurance companies trying to deny claims for any reason they can get away with. That is why it is important to have a lawyer on YOUR side, fighting for your rights, and to understand what your rights are. Your insurance company has lawyers and experts on their side defending them, and so should you.

According to California law, an insurance company must deal fairly (in good faith) with policyholders or Insureds. They must defend a claim or lawsuit against the policyholders, even if some or most of the lawsuit is not directly covered by the policy. And they have a requirement of indemnification, which means they must pay a judgment against the Insured, up to the policy limit, if the judgment is for an act covered by the policy. There are many examples of how an insurance company can commit bad faith insurance. One example would be if an Insurer fails to promptly and thoroughly investigate a claim. Other examples of bad faith would be an unreasonable delay of payment or an unreasonable denial of benefits to a claim. A policy holder is also protected against their Insurer using unreasonable interpretations in translating policy language or refusing to settle a case or reimburse a policyholder for the entirety of a loss. One prime example of bad faith occurs when an insurance company refuses to make a reasonable settlement offer in a case where the Insured is being sued, thereby putting the Insured at risk for a judgment that is in excess of the policy limits. If this happens to you, you can sue your insurance company for bad faith.

To prove bad faith, you need to show that your insurance company failed to honor your contract. If you feel that your insurance company is not acting fairly and in good faith toward you, you have the right to contact a lawyer. If you are located in the State of California, please contact us at the Law Offices of Greenberg & Rudman LLP for a free consultation.