Expert Witness Blog
Insurance claims expert witnesses may opine on insurance companies, bad faith, liability insurance, and related topics. In When Insurers Hide Behind their Experts in Texas, Sergio V. Leal, Esq. writes:
The Texas Supreme Court stated that an insurer’s reliance upon an expert’s report alone will not necessarily shield the insurer from liability if there is evidence that the report was not objectively prepared or the insurer’s reliance was unreasonable. Overturning an intermediate appellate court decision, the Texas Supreme Court found that there was evidence to support the jury’s finding that the insurer denied the claim in bad faith because there was evidence from which the jury could infer that HAAG’s reports were not objectively prepared, that the insurer was aware of HAAG’s lack of objectivity, and that the insurer’s reliance on the reports was merely pretextual.
Nicolau reaffirmed the long-established idea that insurance companies cannot expect their experts’ reports alone to shield them from bad faith liability.
Read more: http://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/