Credit: iJeab/Shutterstock.com A 'Gotcha Tactic'?: Court of Appeals to Hear 'Bad Faith' Settlement Claim Dispute at Oral Argument
According to the defendant-appellants, the plaintiff's demand was emblematic of a "set-up" offer by which an "attorney could … try to avoid a policy-limits settlement by sending a needlessly complicated demand with a myriad of confusing and seemingly trivial terms designed to elicit a rejection."
April 30, 2024 at 03:40 PM
5 minute read
What You Need to Know
- The defendant in a wrongful death auto tort appealed their case, arguing that the plaintiffs set them up to fail to accept a settlement offer with an overly complicated demand.
- Meanwhile, the plaintiffs argue the defense is using gotcha tactics to force them into an agreement they rejected the terms to.
- Now, it's up to the Court of Appeals to determine who was and wasn't acting in good faith.
The Georgia Court of Appeals is set to be asked to define what is a bona fide settlement offer in an issue that is "consistently faced" by defense lawyers, according to the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association, which filed an amicus brief in the case. Defense counsel argues that they did not fail to accept a settlement offer, but rather, plaintiffs' counsel purposefully made the terms hard to follow to "set up a bad faith failure-to-settle claim."
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