Quote:
Originally Posted by creekster
This is amusing becasue it is so wildly incorrect. DO you think that insurance companies rush to throw money at plaintffs becaseu they are nice guys? The reason carriers beahve this way is becasue if they do not protect doctors (their insureds) they will be sued for bad faith. Indeed, the fact of large bad faith verdicts against carriers that failed to settle within limits when they had a chance to do so is exactly why they choose to settle now. In the case of medmal claims, can you venture a guess who it was that sued the carrier for bad faith? Here is a clue: it wasn't the injured party.
|
You're really out of your realm here. The reason they're settling is the wildly disparate risk they're facing. That said, more and more are challenging them in court. I assure you that this is the chief complaint docs have about their carriers--their unwillingness to take things to court. I have yet to hear of a case of a bad-faith lawsuit. They may exist, but they're rare. I follow this issue pretty closely as ER is one of the higher liability fields--I'm sure if they were common, I would have read of several examples by now.