Insurance Bad Faith

The firm has effectively represented many individuals and small business against a variety of insurance companies. Led by Michael H. Whitehill, Kussman & Whitehill has elicited numerous multi-million dollar jury awards and seven figure settlements on behalf of its clients. Kussman & Whitehill has successfully litigated many insurance coverage disputes and consistently established insurance bad faith against insurance companies operating in California, including Farmers Insurance Company, State Farm Insurance Company, Allstate Insurance Company, and Twentieth Century Insurance Company.

Kussman & Whitehill has represented individuals, where life, disability, property and liability insurance carriers have refused to honor their contractual obligations. For example, Kussman & Whitehill recently settled a case for just under 2 million dollars where an insurer wrongly refused to come to the defense of a small business owner sued for the wrongful death of a child. In another case, Kussman& Whitehill represented a homeowner whose rental home burned down. When the insurance company refused to pay the claim a lawsuit was filed. The jury returned a verdict for the homeowner including 12 million dollars in punitive damages. The verdict was affirmed on appeal in its entirety and is thought to be the largest punitive damage verdict ever upheld on appeal in California.

In another multi-million dollar jury verdict the firm represented a trucker whose insurance company denied his claim when his truck was destroyed. As a result of the insurance company's failure to pay the claim the client's trucking business was destroyed. The jury returned a verdict of 2.5 million dollars including 2 million in punitive damages.