The “legitimate dispute” defense is asserted in many, if not most, bad faith cases. As noted in a previous post, using this defense, insurance companies often argue there is a “legitimate dispute” with the policyholder about the insurance claim in question, and there can therefore be no bad faith liability. Policyholders often argue in response
As a young lawyer starting to work on bad faith cases, I was anxious to do the legal research necessary to find a list of acts by an insurance company that qualified as “bad faith.” I began looking in the law books (we didn’t use computerized research much back in the stone ages). I quickly
An insurance policy is a contract. The contract basically provides the policyholder will pay the agreed amount of premiums to the insurance company in exchange for the insurance company’s promise to pay covered claims. The law in Oklahoma has long recognized that an insurance contract is different than other kinds of contracts.
In 1977, the