Insurance Bad Faith Case Results

We think results speak louder than words and just a few examples of our results in insurance bad faith cases, include:

$14.5 Million

Many attorneys talk about insurance bad faith but few have actually successfully litigated bad faith cases through trial and appeal. The Homampour Law Firm has and is considered one of the go to firms for bad faith issues and cases.

We buy insurance to have piece of mind. While we hope that disaster never strikes, life happens and as humans we are bound to make mistakes. Auto insurance is designed to protect us in the event of a mistake or a lawsuit. Insurance companies like Allstate collect our hard earned premiums with our expectation that Allstate will use its enormous resources to protect us in the event of an accident or mistake. This case is a sad but all too common example of how insurance companies can act unreasonably but ultimately be held accountable  – in this case held accountable by the Homampour Law Firm.

In 2009, an Allstate insured made a mistake while driving and caused an accident with a motorcyclist that was tragically left paralyzed. The Allstate insured only had a $100,000 policy (meaning that was the most Allstate would pay on behalf of the insured to resolve the claim and protect the insured.) Himself uninsured, the motorcyclist was by law only entitled to recover his past and future medical expenses and loss of earnings. But, every insurance company knows that the medical expenses and earnings loss for someone paralyzed is easily in the millions of dollars.

Allstate at first agreed to pay the $100,000 in policy limits but then withdrew its offer and refused to pay because the adjuster assigned to this catastrophic claim didn’t want to pay. Not only did Allstate not want to pay – leaving the insureds subject to financial decimation with a multi-million judgment, but Allstate wanted to sue (and did sue) the paralyzed motorcyclist for property damage. This was despite the fact that Allstate had an eyewitness statement placing exclusive blame on their insured. Unbelievable, right?

Instead of settling with the paralyzed motorcyclist who agreed to accept the $100,000 in limits and release the Allstate insureds, Allstate turned around and literally tried to hurt him more financially. But, this is what corporations do when they don’t follow the law and this is why the Homampour Law Firm exists – to right any wrong no matter how big or powerful the wrongdoer is.

The Homampour Law Firm was brought in to represent the motorcyclist and with Arash Homampour as lead trial attorney secured a $10 million judgment against the Allstate insured in 2012 who was found to be 100% at fault for the accident.

But, Allstate refused to pay the judgment and appealed. Then when they lost the appeal, Allstate still refused to pay forcing the motorcyclist and insureds to sue Allstate in Federal Court (the bad faith lawsuit.) Allstate then continued to refuse to pay and the second lawsuit went to trial in 2014. Again, The Homampour Law Firm represented the motorcyclist in the bad faith lawsuit and won a very hard fought second trial securing a $14 million plus judgment against Allstate (with the jury finding that Allstate in fact acted in bad faith.(see  article here)

But, Allstate still refused to pay appealing the second jury verdict. Finally, in 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict (opinion attached) and Allstate was forced to pay over $14.5 million on a claim it could have settled for $100,000.  

This result speaks for itself and should tell you why the Homampour Law Firm is considered the best of the best.

$Confidential

From 1996 through 1998, Arash Homampour handled a very difficult insurance disability/bad faith case in California Federal Court where his client was disabled and suffering from major depression. The client’s disability carrier, New York Life, cut off his $12,000 in monthly benefits alleging he was not disabled.

Arash had to take a number of out of state depositions in a fact and document intense bad faith case, including depositions in New York (it literally was like a story straight from the Grisham novel and movie “The Rainmaker”). He aggressively pursued and obtained an unheard of preliminary injunction ordering New York Life to retroactively reinstate all past benefits and all future benefits pending trial. He then obtained a landmark ruling for his disabled client and the entire disability insurance industry when the Court found that, as a matter of law, Defendant New York Life Insurance Company (an $84 billion insurance goliath) committed bad faith and breached its disabled insured’s two disability policies by unreasonably refusing to pay to its insured his total disability benefits, residual disability benefits and income purchase option benefits.

In a true “David v. Goliath” showdown, Arash defeated the insurance giant and successfully obtained partial summary judgment in Plaintiff’s favor in this ground breaking bad faith action. The case then settled for a confidential sum.

$Confidential

In 1999, Arash Homampour handled a flood/mold/bad faith insurance case against State Farm. He was successful in convincing a Federal Court that his clients’ tort claims against State Farm were not preempted under the Federal National Flood Insurance Act. Cohen v. State Farm Fire & Cas., 68 F.Supp. 2d 1151 (C.D. 1999). The case later settled for a confidential sum. A copy of the courts opinion can be found here.

$7.5 Million

In 2010, Arash Homampour settled a difficult liability insurance bad faith/failure to defend case for $7.5 million where Plaintiff obtained a default judgment against his special employer and pursued the judgment against the carrier under an assignment of rights against the carrier for the failure to defend and pay a policy limits demand.

The carrier appealed the underlying judgment and contended that the entire judgment was invalid under the workers compensation exclusivity doctrine and that it never had or breached the duty to defend.

Handling both an appeal of the underlying judgment and the second lawsuit on the bad faith claims, Arash was successful in navigating through the complex set of facts and law and forcing the insurance carrier to settle a claim it originally denied and refused to pay.

$5 Million

In 2020, Arash Homampour and Danielle Lincors obtained a $5 Million Disputed Policy Limits Settlement in a fight not only against Defendant, but also the insurance company. More details on this result can be found here.